The Legacy of Hyrule
by Robert Siegfried
Summary: due to numerous complaints on the subject, this uncompleted work is being placed back on the site, however, as a warning to anyone reading it. This fic is discontinued and will NEVER BE FINISHED, due mainly to the fact that my writing skill has improved so drastically since I began that the entire thing would need to be rewritten.
1. Dreams of the Kokiri

The Legacy of Hyrule _Remastered_

By Robert Siegfried

Ocarina of Time Part I

**Disclaimer- I do not own The Legend of Zelda**

**Audio Version of This Chapter  
>Part 1:<strong> **www(period)youtube(period)com(forwardslash)watch?v=_1ICpBUBp9o**  
><strong>Part 2: Coming Soon<strong>

Chapter 1: Dreams of the Kokiri

_This is a legend long recounted by the royal family of Hyrule, now passed to you o' reader of the olden texts. Thou shalt bear witness to a legend of war, heroism, and love that hath risen forth from an age long lost. This ancient legend once lost to the deep reaches of history in a time of uncounted years passing has been dubbed in the tongues of men **The Legend of Zelda**. The Legacy of Hyrule is a retelling of this legend. This account spans the adventures of the Hero of Time, The Hero Chosen by the Gods, and The Hero of Legend, a recounting of the tale of 'The Ocarina of Time' 'The Mask of Majora' 'The Princess of Twilight' and 'The Past of Link'. This text shall be contained as a single volume but within it shall be four compendiums which shall contain all of the parts of this legend._

_So follows the account of The Hero of Time._

A black void; that was what filled the space between dream and reality, the place where you went when you were awake but still dreaming. Nobody could truly come to understand the mechanics of the dream, because most of the dream would end up obscured behind the curtain of half-waking which would become prevalent in memory over the half remembered dream.

This void was what most beings experienced during the few minutes while their mind slowly returned to the mortal world after a night of sleep. There was one child in the forest who did not experience this period of blackness, which was intended since the beginning of time to obscure a dream partially. This child of the forest was experiencing something else entirely that did not partially hide his memory of the dream, but completely blocked it as solidly as a brick wall would stop a man. This lent a feeling of realism to what black magic had brought upon him in those few minutes of time while he awakened but still dreamt of what should have existed as blackness. He could remember every detail. Every single blade of grass and drop of rain was burnt into his memory as if branded with a red hot iron. He had seen a vision of the future

_Blackness, blackness filled everything as if eternity itself had been dipped in black ink. Link was the only exception to this darkling void, standing in the field like a rebellious speck in the wicked shadow. He quickly found when he moved the ground would give slightly beneath his booted feet, and that something brushed his bare legs as he moved across the void. His sub-conscious mind had already registered a problem; he shouldn't have been able to move through the dream world like he could through reality and an unaltered dream. Link became curious and slightly afraid of this new development as every sense he had told him that something was seriously wrong. He reached down and grabbed one of the things rubbing against his leg, the texture felt very familiar but he could not see what it was that he held. He plucked it from the ground and the moment it left the world and became as much a part of him as his clothes, boots, and equipment, it became visible._

_It was a blade of grass. A bright shade of healthy forest green and slightly wet as if soaked with dew or recently rained on._

_Link stared at the thin green blade of growth with curiosity and some fear. He came to the realization that if there was a blade of grass invisible to him till he removed it from the ground, than there was a whole world that he could stumble through like a blind man. For all he knew he could be standing upon the edge of a cliff._

_Before he could continue this thought, there was a flash of bright light, accompanied seconds later by a loud boom. The ground rumbled beneath his feet and the entire world became instantly and startlingly visible. Immediately Link was assaulted with freezing rain that stung when it hit him and though it was day the sun was a fiery red ball mostly blocked out by dirty black clouds, only visible as an inflamed ball of red light, glowering like a burning fire._

_Link felt the weight on his back increase and instinctively reached over his shoulder with his left hand. Feeling a wooden handle there, he grabbed it was and drew it forth, jumping back at what he saw grasped in his hand._

_A sword, a two foot blade of gleaming steel and a wooden handle inset with a single ruby was gripped tightly in his left hand. He reached behind his back with his right hand and found a shield as well. The shield was made of tree bark and had the symbol of the Kokiri emblazoned in red upon the front, it was the kind they sold in the shop in the village. Link immediately began to wonder why he was so well armed but didn't have a chance to continue that thought either, because there was a second thunderclap and flash of light accompanied by a clanking sound off to his left._

_Link turned towards the odd noise and saw the grandest structure he had ever beheld. The front was easily a quarter mile across, made entirely from white marble, with walls sixty feet high. The clanking was being caused by two chains lowering a massive wooden bridge that doubled as a gate when it was raised. That gate lowered over a narrow channel of water that, from what link could see, circled the entire structure. Link figured out pretty quickly that the water was some sort of security system and the drawbridge was likely the only way to cross the channel. Link didn't see the point for having the water around the entire castle, since he couldn't imagine there was any power in the world that could destroy those walls, but there was definitely a reason for it or it would not have been made._

_The gate lowered all the way to the ground and Link could make out the outline of some houses and other buildings unidentifiable in the dim light on the other side. There was something else too, an outline too large to be a person and yet too small to be another building, it was also moving. As it got closer Link began to hear a sound of hooves on stone and realized it must have been someone riding an animal. Saria had told him that barbarians outside the forest did such things as using animals for transportation since they could move faster than they could on their own. In the forest, animals were treated with respect as if they were equal to the Kokiri, to use an animal as some form of transportation was an atrocity to them; there wasn't any need to go anywhere fast anyways since the forest was so small._

_The figure became easier to see as it drew closer to Link; it was a white horse with an expensive looking saddle and bridle made from brown leather inset with various colored gem stones. Riding the horse were two women, one was a young girl Link's age or possibly a tiny bit older, she had blonde hair and a flowing white dress. The other woman was actually driving the horse, she was visibly far older and had hair of a white color tied in a bun behind her head, she was wearing body armor and had a dagger strapped to the small of her back._

_Link was so intrigued by these strange clothes and habits of the two riders that he almost forgot to leap out of the way as they rode past. Link jumped to the side as the horse almost bowled him over and when he landed his feet sunk into the wet, muddy dirt. He almost fell, but managed to regain his balance before almost tipping over. He turned around just in time to see the younger of the two women throw something through the air. A flash of lightning illuminated everything for a moment and Link could make out that it was a small circular object colored royal blue. The object soared over Links head and landed with a quiet splash in the moat surrounding the castle. Link turned to look at where the object had landed for a second and then when he returned his gaze to the direction of the two riders, they were gone._

"_You!" someone shouted behind him. Even without seeing who had shouted, Link knew that the voice was that of something evil, it was low and scratchy, it sounded almost… sick. Link slowly turned to see who had spoken._

_His horse was black as midnight, almost seeming to emanate shadows. Its dark body was protected by layer upon layer of rusted iron plates held together by straps of black leather clamped together with heavy metal studs. The eyes of the horse glowed red like burning coals, its left eye looked straight at Link while it's right was obscured from view on the far side of its head._

_Link looked above the horse at the rider himself. He was the most terrible thing Link had ever seen. His skin was green, with boils full of yellow puss covering his hands and face and neck, which were the only places where Link could actually see the man's skin. Some of the boils were popped and their juices ran down his face and neck to the crevices of his armor, where they stayed to fill the air around the evil man with an awful stink of rotting flesh and old body fluids. His eyes were red, though not glowing like those of his horse, and his hair was the same shade of fiery red as well. His armor was made of black leather with steel plates hidden within. On the outside it would look like ceremonial clothing but in combat an attacker would be surprised when the blade of his sword bounced off like a rubber ball. His boots were of the same black leather but without armor plating, except for an iron toe covering the end of each boot. The boots were held on by belt straps and each one contained a small dagger for hand to hand fighting. His fingernails were black and covered in dirt and grime as well as the rest of his armor and horse._

_But there was one feature of the monstrous being that frightened Link even more than all those other features combined. The beast of a man, had a blood red ruby, EMBEDDED IN HIS SKULL. Seeing that almost made Link retch, but he maintained his composure and held his ground. He held his sword and shield at his sides, ready to fight but not openly being aggressive to avoid starting a battle._

"_You!" The evil man repeated. Link looked up at him, half afraid and half angry._

"_You must have seen the two that just passed by here on a white horse; where did they go? Tell me!" The man shouted. Link went from being half angry and half afraid to being full on furious at the beastly creature mounted on horseback before him. This evil man would dare harm those two strange and wonderful women who just rode by moments before. How could he possibly think of telling him where they went?_

"_No!" Link shouted while raising his sword and deku shield and preparing for battle. The green man looked at him for a second with a frown, and then began laughing so darkly that Link felt the hairs on his back stand on end. He instinctively raised his shield higher to create a barrier between himself and the dark rider._

"_You think you can stand against me, boy?" the man laughed as he slowly gathered a ball of black energy in his hand in a carefree manner. Link assumed a combat stance, not sure what was coming. Unexpectedly a look of rage crossed the man's face and he fired the ball of power directly at Link. With no time to dodge the attack, Link lifted his shield, the ball of black magic hit the shield and was for a moment absorbed by the wooden safeguard, before the shield exploded and caught fire. The explosion would have killed Link if it had hit him dead on, but it hadn't hit him directly so the only effect was that he was sent flying backwards before skidding in the mud, leaving his entire back covered in brown dirt and green grass. Link ripped the burning remains of his shield away from his grip before they could burn his arm and looked up at the horseman._

"_Fool! Do you have any idea who you are messing with! I am Gannondorf Dragmire, king of the Gerudo, master of all of Hyrule, conqueror of this land, and soon I shall rule the world!" the horseman shouted before riding off into the distance with his blood stained cape flowing behind him. Link knew his little stunt had delayed the evil man named Gannondorf long enough to allow the two women to get away, and that knowledge was plenty to make him proud. He slowly got to his feet in the torchlight of the castle, and the dream slowly began to fade around him, into the realm of reality._

((()))

Good dreams or bad, Link always awoke at the exact same time, right when the cuckoo crowed in the distance beyond even the edge of the forest. The sickly sweet smell of rotting vegetation filled his nostrils as he took his first waking breath and opened his eyes, staring at the circular pattern of the ceiling belonging to the tree his house was built within.

All of the houses in the Kokiri forest were built from the stumps and trunks of the massive trees that used to grow in the valley deep within the lost woods, just west of the Great Deku Tree Meadow. Link's house was built slightly different from the others; the house itself was fifteen feet up in the tree rather than at the ground level because the tree was in a depressed area that filled with water when it rained. Instead a porch was built at the level of the actual house inside the tree and a ladder went fifteen feet down to the trampled earth below.

Usually, even after he had bad dreams, Link would awake still feeling slightly refreshed from his nightly rest, but this morning he felt almost like he had the flu or some other ailment, he definitely felt sick in his stomach at the very least. He slowly got to his feet and stumbled over to the entryway, pushing aside the white oil cloth that served as a door and effectively filling the room with early morning fog and dew. The sun was just barely visible through the trees at the top of the cliffs on the east side of the valley. Link blinked his eyes a few times and took a look at everything he could see from his porch; very few people were awake so early in the morning, so he could only see three Kokiri from his porch.

Link heard a loud scuffling noise to the north and saw a Deku Scrub scuttling away from a baba plant. The plant must have been older because the stem was long and flexible, whereas if it were a younger plant the stem would be thin and hard, still growing taller. Link watched the scrub run outside the plant's reach, then turn and fire a Deku Nut at it in retribution. The nut hit the bulb of the plant and left a green and purple mark on its blue 'head', the baba plant retreated back into the ground to hide from the flurry of Deku Nuts that the scrub had unleashed upon it and the scrub made a noise that sounded like an annoyed 'humph' before turning and padding along in the opposite direction as if nothing had happened.

Link watched the action up on the cliff a few seconds longer with idle interest but his focus shifted back to the ground level when he heard a few padding footsteps below the porch. Standing down below was Saria, his best friend. He did have other friends, Kristi who always sat on the awning of the store, and Michael, who Mido kept trying to make move the rocks in front of his house. Mido was the resident jerk of the village, he was short, red haired, and freckled, and had a tendency to boss people around, hence making Michael move the rocks in front of his house.

"Hey Link, you wanna play hide and seek?" Saria shouted from down at the ground level. Link temporarily forgot the headache as he leaned over the railing of the porch and looked down at Saria below, she was wearing the same forest-green sweater and skirt as always and her hair and eyes matched it perfectly, only her brown boots didn't match the rest of her clothing and eyes.

"Sure, I'll be down in a minute" Link replied while turning back into his house and grabbing his boots and hat. Link put his hat on and then stepped into his boots on the way out of the house. Rather than climbing down the ladder, he jumped down to the muddy ground below; apparently it had rained some the night before because his feet sunk several inches into the wet sod.

"You're gonna break an ankle doing that someday" Saria warned. Link ignored the warning but pretended he noticed.

"So, how long do I give you to run?" Link asked. His voice was scratchy because of his sore throat, caused by whatever ailment he had. Saria noticed and turned quickly towards him, narrowing her eyes at him, looking for any sign of sickness.

"You're pale, and you don't sound so good" Saria stated while inspecting his face.

"I'm feeling a bit sick, I'll be fine" Link replied while tightening his right bootstrap, which had a habit of coming loose.

"Are you sure" Saria asked, the concern showed through her voice and Link could tell that she really was worried about him. He still felt slightly embarrassed that she was so worried about his health.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Link replied quickly.

"Alright, give me twenty seconds to run." Saria said, still unsure of whether or not she thought running around would be a good idea for someone in his condition.

"I'm counting" Link said while putting his arm over his eyes, blocking his vision. He heard Saria laugh excitedly before running north with fast, padding footsteps, the characteristic noise of Kokiri boots on soft, forest grass. Link counted down from twenty in his head, giving Saria and extra 3 seconds out of courtesy. He was already the tallest and strongest of the Kokiri, according to some he was unnaturally tall and strong for the Kokiri, they stopped aging at about twelve years old and Link had reached that about half a year earlier, but would swear that he was continuing to grow taller.

Link reached twenty, plus the three extra seconds he gave out of courtesy, and then lowered his arm and looked around. He spotted bobbing green hair disappearing over the top of the hill to the northeast. He grinned at how quickly he spotted her and quickly ran off in pursuit, being careful to avoid the many obstacles in his path.

Link was surprised when he crossed the top of the hill, the other side was a reasonably clear field, but Saria was nowhere to be seen, even though Link had outrun her by nearly double her speed. He turned in circles looking for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Then he heard something that sounded very familiar, he stopped and listened, being careful to make absolutely no noise.

_Hehehe_

He heard Saria's characteristic giggle, and it was directly under his feet. Link immediately realized that there was a way to get under the ground and it had to be nearby. He thought back to everything he had heard about for the last several years, trying to remember if there was anything about some sort of cave near the village. He didn't remember anything about it and wasn't surprised since he was technically the youngest Kokiri, whereas Saria, who was the oldest, was about four hundred years old, and would know far more about the woods and its best hiding places than Link. It seemed she had an endless supply of new places to hide, even within the village, but Link usually won eventually because once he found her hiding spots he easily outran her. Link had even developed a method for finding hiding spots, the ones above ground at least. He pictured everything in his sight range in his mind and then compared all the objects he could see and, therefore, all the empty or possibly filled places that he could not, namely, the places hidden from view large enough to hide a Kokiri. But for finding underground cavities he had no method, Saria rarely used them and he believed he already knew all the ones nearby.

Even so, it didn't take Link very long to find the entrance to the underground grotto; it was only about twenty feet away from him and was obscured by some tall grass. Link was not surprised by the tall grass surrounding the hole, the dirt around the entrance would likely be more fertile than the normal soil of the Kokiri village, which was trod on daily and was the subject of laundry water and weeds.

Link found the entryway and saw that even though only a three foot circle of light made it down into the chamber below, it was as well lit as the surface just after twilight. Link shimmied his way down into the cavern below and was surprised by its size. The roof of the grotto was only fifteen feet high, but the cave was almost sixty feet wide and a hundred long, with broken pillars and flagstones providing ample cover for him or Saria to hide in. Link looked around the inside of the grotto for a few seconds longer, as glowing patterns of rippling water were cast across the room when the light from above reflected off the surface of the small pool.

He figured that this new cave was related to the big thing on the far side of the secret place, where he and Saria talked and played a lot of the time. The secret place at least had the same kinds of pillars and slightly rounded bricks. Link began to wonder just how extensive the secret place was, just what was on the other side of the eternally unreachable door, he and Saria had talked about it a lot, getting ladders and climbing up, but thus far they had not done it.

Link slowly walked around the underground area, looking behind every brick and fallen column. He heard a girly laugh off to his left and he spotted Saria about fifty feet away running towards a set of stairs at the back of the room. Link wasted no time taking off after her like a seed out of a slingshot. He once again doubled her speed on the distance and charged up the stone stairs, which grass poked up in-between the flagstones of. He spotted Saria only thirty feet away and running up towards another, wider stairway. Link continued to chase her through the rubble of what was once a palace or part of some ancient temple. The wider set of stairs gradually narrowed until he was practically crawling after her. Saria gained the advantage because she was smaller and therefore, much more capable of crawling through the tight space than Link. She gained about ten feet but Link had taken twenty over the reasonably open ground. He burst out of the confined space only about ten seconds behind her. He didn't even need to look to spot the edge of her arm sticking out from behind a tree. He slowly snuck up on the tree and then jumped around the side and grabbed her.

"Gotcha" Link shouted enthusiastically. He and Saria laughed and talked for only a few seconds before Link turned his focus onto the hole in the ground that was now to his left.

"What was that place?" Link asked. Saria began to look a bit depressed when Link asked that question.

"Well, I guess it's time you knew" Saria started, Link was already listening intently to every word, every syllable, there was something he hadn't been informed of.

"Four hundred and twenty seven years ago, was when we Kokiri came to exist." Saria stated.

"We were once part of the race of Hylians, a peaceful race of grown-ups that live outside the forest. There was once a very important place here, in this forest, it was called Parapa palace. It was destroyed about the time the Kokiri became their own separate culture, the palace was destroyed by a righteous hero, defending the world from an evil man. The evil man had his retribution, the village called Kasuto was destroyed by the evil man, and several of us escaped into the woods, soon the adults died and only me and Mido were left somehow not passing the age of 12, we were both named after towns in this ancient world. I was named after the town of Saria, and he was named after the town of Midoro. There were others back then named after the towns, but I do not remember any of them." Saria continued to explain.

"So, one day we found out why we hadn't aged at all, while the adults had thoughts and intentions of evil in their minds, me and Mido, the only children, had been completely pure of heart, yet on the edge of starvation and about to die. The Deku Tree, guardian of the forest, had taken pity on us and assisted us by teaching us how to grow food and what plants were safe to eat. Me and Mido could not stand each other however and began to get lonely since neither of us would play with each other. The Deku Tree helped us again by creating children of the forest, the Kokiri, so we would never be friendless again." Saria continued, Link continued to listen with utter amazement at the story he had never heard before, he never had heard about where the Kokiri came from.

"Eventually some of the Kokiri began to get into trouble, causing problems in the forest and unbalancing the woods. So, The Deku Tree decided about three hundred years ago that each Kokiri would have a fairy to guide them and keep them from doing bad things." Saria explained.

"Then, about twelve years ago-", She caught herself and decided to stop, Link was not yet ready to know that part of the story. Link looked questioningly at her but she just walled him off.

"You shouldn't know that part of the story quite yet." Saria said.

"Saria, please" Link whined.

"I need to get permission to tell you that, The Deku Tree specifically said you were not to be told" Saria said. She caught herself slipping up there too; she was practically giving away the information.

"I can't tell you" Saria just stated plainly.

"Fine, be that way" Link groaned, he stormed off back in what he assumed was the direction of the village with Saria just watching him leave dumbly. He figured he was just angry because he was sick but he didn't care, he was angry none the less. He was so angry that he wasn't even paying attention to his surroundings; he didn't notice the woods were actually getting darker, that the sky was turning black. He didn't notice anything at all until a red bolt of heat lightning smashed into the ground only a hundred feet away, incinerating a tree that was between it and the ground.

"Hyah, Hyah!" Link heard the noise of someone whipping a horse, speeding through the woods, the hooves of his steed clopping noisily on the hard packed earth. Link started looking around and realized he had been heading deeper into the unknown area, possibly even beyond the edge of the lost woods.

Link ducked as the rider neared, the shouts of 'Hyah' growing louder with each passing second. Link saw the rider for a split second as he sped past, only fifty feet away, when he was illuminated by a flash of lightning. Link didn't know if it was his eyes playing tricks on him, or simply a random act of the lighting, but the man riding the coal-black horse, looked exactly like the evil man from his dreams.

Link stayed ducked behind the log while the storm passed, which happened extremely quickly after the mysterious rider left. Once the storm had gone away, Link got up and this time paid attention to which way he was going. Knowing to ignore the strange curves of the lost woods that had claimed many who didn't pay attention to their shapes, and instead he followed the sun knowing that it was slightly to the east since it was still morning. He went straight south and then after about ten minutes he reached the village. But even when he was safe in the village, and even safer in his own house, he couldn't shake the thought from his head, that who he had seen really was the phantom rider of his dream…

((()))

"Guardian of the forest!" Gannondorf shouted. The Deku Tree was very slow to respond to his being addressed, but when his solid wooden eyelids finally opened, he saw a sight he had not expected to see. Gannondorf, king of the Gerudo, sitting upon a coal-black horse, the ghost rider upon his midnight steed, addressing him in his own meadow.

"What being has penetrated these sacred woods and brought thy sin-tainted feet upon these grounds." The Great Deku Tree demanded. Even without the answer of the Gerudo king, he could sense the vile intentions of the evil man; see the fiery gleam of greed in his eyes. The evil the man emanated was so strong that the Deku Tree could almost taste the vice filling his sacred grounds with an air of fear and helplessness. He knew the day was going to come soon, when the quest of the boy without a fairy would begin, but he had not expected it this day, a sign that his senses were well below what they used to be.

"I have embarked upon a quest on behalf of my people, the Gerudo. For twelve years we have been oppressed by the archaic king of Hyrule, who refused all to us but the desert which he would hath forsaken without our need of land. I must have the spiritual stones to gain access to the Triforce, so I may make our races to interact peaceably." Gannondorf stated. The Great Deku Tree was surprised by the Gerudo king's ability to make his voice sound sincere, any mortal would have easily fallen for the façade. Gannondorf was definitely born to rule, but the Deku Tree could see through his false sincerity and see the true motive of his visit to the forest.

"Thou are a mongrel and a liar, Thou reeks deeply of vice and wickedness, I see through the façade of sincerity and see thy true purpose with the spiritual stones, thou wishes to destroy the kingdom of Hyrule, as thy failed twelve years before. I refuse to give thee the power thou seeks." The Great Deku Tree bellowed. Gannondorf and his horse did not even flinch under the shouting and watchful gaze of the ancient guardian of the forest.

"I must warn you, forest guardian, I must have that spiritual stone, whether I take it peacefully or by force is your decision to make.

"Thou shalt not have the spiritual stone by any means, peacefully or by force!" The Great Deku Tree boomed. Gannondorf frowned and held out both of his hands, The Deku Tree sensed the Gerudo summoning a curse, a curse powered by an amount of magic that the Great Deku Tree had never seen before, even within himself.

"If you give me the spiritual stone before my curse destroys you from within, I can still spare your life, Forest Guardian." Gannondorf said as purple fire formed in his hands and then shot out in a beam, straight at the Deku Tree.

The Great Deku Tree sensed the attack coming and countered with his own magical defense, a wall of green formed between himself and the attacker. The purple fire impacted on the magical shield, foundered upon it for a faltering second, then burst through the guard, slamming into the Deku Tree and placing a curse of death upon him.

"In hours you will be dead; do you wish to give me the spiritual stone, so I may spare your life?" Gannondorf asked. He had no need to kill The Deku Tree and the summoning of Gohma took a great deal of energy, energy he quite possibly would need later.

"I shall never surrender to such evil as thou hath brought upon my realm." The Deku Tree stated, already feeling the effects of the monster chewing through and killing his roots, the roots which supplied the water and minerals necessary for his existence.

"Then you shall die painfully and I will take the stone from your wooden corpse" Gannondorf replied angrily before riding off into the forest. The Deku Tree knew he was doomed, no matter how fast the hero of legend reacted to the crisis; The Deku Tree would still die from the curse of the desert man. The Deku Tree only had one more cause, to send the hero forth on his journey, and the curse could prove an excellent test of his skills, even if successfully destroying it would mean nothing to the Deku Tree. The Deku Tree had made up his mind and put the events into motion.

"Navi, Where art thou, come hither"


	2. The Forest Guardian

The Legacy of Hyrule _Remastered_

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 2: The Forest Guardian

"Navi, where art thou, come hither"

The order spread quickly, if there was a single master over all the life which existed in the forest, it was the Deku Tree. All life in his domain respected his rule and transferred the information without any question as to who it was for or why it was made. As a wave of whispers made its way across the forest, a single ball of light with grasshopper wings and a small body completely hidden within the aura of blue it generated entered the clearing before the Deku Tree.

"Oh Navi, thou hast arriven" The Deku Tree stated as Navi entered the clearing. Navi the fairy could already tell that The Deku Tree was in some way compromised, possibly dying, just by the change his voice had taken from its deep and powerful sound it had possessed before.

"Why hast thou voice been altered, and why dost thy bark turn grey" Navi asked. The Deku Tree responded quickly to that question.

"For many nights, I, The Great Deku Tree, hath seen visions of a blackness obscuring the land of Hyrule" The Deku Tree stated, Navi listened carefully as the Deku Tree continued to speak.

"Not ten minutes prior to thy arrival, I saw he who I believed to be the source of this darkness" The Deku Tree continued. Navi immediately considered what The Great Deku Tree was saying.

"Great Deku Tree, forgive me if it is out of my place to state this, but has it not been our custom to avoid leaving the forest for costs that may ensue after hand." Navi replied to the Deku Tree.

"The land of Hyrule is threatened by this great evil which saps my strength even as thou speaks." The Deku Tree stated.

"But the land of Hyrule is not our forest, our forest could survive many millennia with Hyrule and millennia longer without, we have no need for the outsiders that cut down the trees of our boundaries and use the wood to make their paper and power their furnaces. They are vile and uncivilized and to help them would invite catastrophe to our way of life." Navi explained.

"Silence, Navi!" The Deku Tree boomed "Thou shalt not insult the people of Hyrule as if thou art above their arrogance!" Navi quickly silenced herself and listened to what the Deku Tree had to say.

"Were the people of Hyrule casually threatened thou wouldst not be summoned to action, but thou knows what evil it is that threatens Hyrule, thy knows what creature has been risen from his desert grave by the magic of the arcane Twinrova, who now roams freely along and within our borders as well as those of Hyrule. Thy must know of the temple in the forest, which houses the demonic phantom of that evil being. Gannondorf"

Navi shuddered when she heard the name of the evil man who had, many centuries before, destroyed Hyrule as if it were a minor obstacle, only to be destroyed him self by the Picori blade, re-forged into the legendary Master Sword.

"But surely he cannot have risen, the man who froze the ancient princess of destiny in stone. The ancient hero, with the blade of evil's bane, cleaved the soul of that black hearted being from his body, a resurrection of his body would be impossible without his black soul to join it." Navi contested.

"It was not the body of Gannondorf that was resurrected, it was his soul, and the black magic of Twinrova formed a more powerful form for him to possess with his evil power. Gannondorf is resilient and so long as black magic exists, it will be too much to expect for him to die for anything more than a short while, a millennia at most. Gannondorf will not settle for just Hyrule, his lust for power is too great for that, Gannondorf shall only settle for nothing less that the world. Do not folly by fooling thy self that he shall not claim the forest as his second conquest, possibly even as part of his first. The time has come for the boy who has no fairy to begin his journey, the boy, whose destiny it is to lead Hyrule along the path of truth and righteousness." The Deku Tree stated. Navi knew the Deku Tree was right, if it was truly Gannondorf who threatened Hyrule, the forest would be no safe haven, the lost woods could keep out the very simple minded of the monsters but an evil as great as Gannondorf would not even be relatively affected by it's many confusing paths, he would personally lead his army of Moblins through the woods to the sacred grove where he himself would restore his phantom.

"What wouldst thou have his servant do?" Navi asked.

"Find the boy, find Link, and bring him to me. The fate of the forest, nay, the world, depends upon thee!" The Deku Tree stated. Navi didn't need to be told twice, the fairy hardly actually even needed to be told once. The ball of light turned towards the village of the Kokiri, and shot off into the woods…

((()))

Link, still angry, stomped into the village and ignored anyone that tried talking to him. His boots and his legs up to his knees were covered in mud from walking through the lost woods after the storm that had appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way. Link just stomped his way up to his tree house, sloshing through about half a foot of water that had gathered at its base after the storm, and then climbed up the ladder, kicking off his boots at the top. With nothing better to do to occupy his time, Link flopped down on the mattress on the far side of his single room tree house and closed his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep for the second time that day. He heard people cleaning up after the thunderstorm outside, apparently Mido's house had been struck by lightning and Mido wasn't even going to help repair the damage to his own home, just like the selfish pig he was.

Link listened to the sounds of shouting outside, Mido arguing with someone else that didn't want to fill the crater in his front yard. Apparently Mido won, as usual, and one of the younger Kokiri went off in the direction of Mido's house to fill the crater. Likely the Kokiri who lost the argument would do the job Mido had asked him to do, then Mido would find some problem with it and the Kokiri would do the job over again even though he shouldn't have had to do it in the first place.

Link listened to the noises outside his house and finally after a few minutes, fell asleep

((()))

_Link knew before it had even begun that the nightmare of the dark rider and the stone castle had returned. The unrivalled darkness that he faced as he entered the dream world was his first indication of the nightmare's returning prevalence. Soon he once again stood upon open field with a sword and shield upon his back, raindrops that stung like acid landing on his head and shoulders with the fiery ball that was the sun glowing through evil clouds. Link held his hands over his head to try and shield himself from the acid rain but it was quite a useless gesture, he finally remembered he had the wooden shield and pulled it off his back to use as some protection, it worked a little bit but there were still places where the acid rain reached him._

_As if in spite of the other dream, the castle remained closed, he was left out in the rain with no shelter of any kind. Simultaneously being burned by the acid and frozen by the icy cold fingers of the rain. Link stood and waited but the castle did not open, he was refused._

"_Link!" A shout came from off to his right, Link turned and looked and saw a figure hidden in the rain, he couldn't see much but a silhouette, but the voice made him think it was a girl. Link turned and began running in the direction of the silhouette, but it seemed to keep remaining the same distance away no matter how far he ran. Eventually though, he reached her under an outcropping near the foot of a great mountain. Link looked up the mountain and saw in the hazy distance a ring of smoke and an occasional plume of flame rise from the top of it._

"_Link!" The girl's voice repeated, Link turned and looked at the figure and saw the vague outline of a female figure, but she was somehow obscured almost entirely from his view despite being in plain sight, some sort of cloaking magic that hid her true form. Link didn't trust her, but he refrained from drawing his sword against her._

"_Link, why were you out in the rain?" The girl asked. Her voice was beautiful and Link found himself entranced by its sound, he tried to think of a rational reply but there was none, he had just appeared in the storm._

"_It doesn't matter, what matters is that you are here now. I wanted to talk with you Link." The girl said. Link tried to pay attention to the words and not just the beautiful and mysterious sound of the girl's voice that was playing tricks on his mind. She stepped out of the shadows and Link saw that she was a young girl with brownish-red hair and a tunic of black leather under a robe of brown. A knife in a sheath was visible under her arm but it was not drawn. The girl looked at him with her piercing grey eyes and then spoke._

"_I'm here with a warning, a warning you may not want to hear but one that you most certainly need to know. Someone you will learn to care about during your journey is going to try and kill you." The girl said. Link took a step back and looked around as if expecting someone to step out of the darkness with an assassin's dagger in their hand. The girl laughed at this and Link looked at her questioningly._

"_Not here, silly, nobody can kill you in this place, no matter how messed up this world becomes it is still just a dream." The girl said. Link lowered his guard and the girl approached him, as she drew closer he began to feel a strange presence about her, like she was some how more important than she made herself out to be._

"_Here's the big deal Link. In a few hours you will embark on a quest that will change the future of this land, that's all fine and good, but Gannondorf doesn't like that idea and so he's going to do everything in his power to stop you. He doesn't play by the rules if you know what I mean. You must be careful; everyone you meet once you leave the forest is potentially an agent of the Dark Lord. He is always watching, always looking for the chosen one, and you are the one he's searching for. If he finds you, he will kill you. Or worse, manipulate you to do his bidding." The girl warned._

"_Who are you, how do you know this?" Link asked, clearly shaken by the warning he had just been given._

"_I am just a figment of your imagination, though I do resemble one you will meet along your journey, beware Link, the path you will soon walk is a dangerous one, trust nobody, even me." The girl warned. She stepped backwards into the shadows and faded from existence. Link tried to follow but knew it wouldn't work even before he encountered the back of the overhang. He turned to step back out into the rain and saw a massive figure outlined in the opening by a flash of lightning. He only saw for a second but from the glowing red eyes that remained afterwards he knew exactly who it was._

"_So this is the one who is going to stop me?" Gannondorf mused as he entered the sheltered area under the overhang. Link stepped back and drew his sword and Gannondorf made no reaction, instead just taking a confident step forward into the shadow of the overhang so he was within easy striking distance of Link._

"_You might as well lower your sword, hero." Gannondorf spat the last word as if it was a curse. Link kept his weapon up and stepped back deeper into the alcove and Gannondorf didn't follow him further._

"_I must say, I imagined that the hero chosen by the goddesses would be someone a little bit… taller." Gannondorf laughed. Link clinched his fists as the evil king made jest of him. He managed to control his temper as the King of Evil began walking in circles around him under the outcropping of rock._

"_The goddesses have truly lost their power if they think that a kid like you could ever possibly stand against me. I am the greatest Gerudo to ever walk this earth, my coming was prophesized in legend and my magic coupled with the power of the Triforce will make me invincible. What chance do the goddesses think a child like you could stand against my omnipotence?" Gannondorf spat. Link was very tempted to attack but he knew that it wouldn't turn out so well for him if he did._

"_Maybe if your antics entertain me well enough, I shall allow your life be spared. As for now, you have wasted enough of my time here already. I'll be waiting for you, hero. Make me wait too long and Hyrule will reap the consequences." Gannondorf laughed, he gathered a ball of black magic in his hand and before Link could do anything to counter it, the ball of raw power was shot at him and hit him square in the chest. He felt a tremendous pain as if his body was being ripped from the world and his vision turned dark. Just as he thought he couldn't take it any more, a strange voice broke through his dream and brought him back to reality._

((()))

"Hey!"

Link heard someone or something shouting at him inside his small house and briefly wondered why anyone would come into his home in the middle of the day. He was about to open his eyes to see who had spoken when something suddenly smacked him in the face. The hit was weak and Link was absolutely sure that Kokiri were nearly that wimpy, even the scrawniest of them could have made his cheek hurt but the hit he had been given he hardly even felt at all.

"Can Hyrule's destiny really depend on such a lazy boy!" the mysterious voice shouted at him. Link felt it hit him again and the third time he swatted what he assumed to be a hand away with his swift reflexes. Only it wasn't a hand that he hit, it was something tiny and warm that had been hitting him with its entire body. It let out a shrill shriek as it went flying in the direction of the door-side wall, it must have regained balanced flight before it reached the far wall because there was no sound of an impact.

"What did you do that for!" the shrill voice shouted. Link knew of only one thing so small that could talk the way the thing had just spoken to him. His eyes shot open and he was greeted by exactly what he had expected to see, a small, glowing fairy. It had grasshopper wings like all the other fairies he had ever seen and it had an aura of blue light, dark blue unlike the light teal color of Saria's fairy. A faint outline of a body was visible through the aura of blue light surrounding her body and Link could just make out that she was thin with long hair. Other than that he couldn't really make out any details.

Link wondered immediately what a fairy was doing in his house. The possibility that he had finally been given a fairy began to echo in his mind. If he had been given a fairy that meant he had finally been accepted as one of the Kokiri. Link immediately shot to his feet and saw the fairy land on the table that was the center piece of the circular room.

"You're so lucky you didn't hurt my wings, I'd mess you up!" the fairy shouted, stumbling in tiny circles from the dizziness after the impact it had just taken. Link stared with mute interest at the fairy that had randomly decided to appear in his house.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to" Link muttered, this calmed the fairy down a little bit but it was obviously still somewhat angry.

"I guess I should be apologizing too for the rude awakening, I'm Navi the fairy, and I already know that you are Link, The Great Deku Tree needs you urgently, we should hurry."…

… A figure clad in purple and black armor crouched at the top of the cliff overlooking the Kokiri village. Unlike every other member of the royal family, she had believed it when the princess had told her the vision she had seen, a Kokiri child with blonde hair and a blue fairy saving Hyrule, holding a green and shining stone.

If the princess hadn't mentioned the stone, she may not have believed her.

But Impa had long studied the ancient lore of Hyrule, the legends of old, unlike most Hylians, she believed the Kokiri truly did exist, and now she knew they did for sure. The fairy boys and fairy girls of legend really were a true species; they probably didn't even know they were legendary. None the less, she watched their movements through the village and watched for ones that didn't seem to fit into the pattern, specifically ones with blonde hair, so far she had spotted, out of the entire population of forty, only one male with blonde hair in the right style, a boy practically covered in mud storming angrily out of the woods to the north. She had noticed others with blonde hair in the village too but the princess had specifically said that his hair was _smooth_ and there was only one boy with smooth blonde hair that she had seen.

She would wait, watching from afar, the green stone from the dream would be the determining factor of whether or not he was legit, so far she had only seen a boy with blonde hair who happened to be a Kokiri, the Kokiri only naturally had green and red hair so something was already definitely amiss about the child.

_But being amiss does not make one heroic_

Impa continued to watch the village, mainly focusing on the house that the boy had entered about and hour and a half earlier. The sheikah had near infinite patience, the Kokiri child didn't even know he was being watched, he would not be in the house for a week but that was how long Impa would wait if it was necessary, a variety of spells could minimize her need for food and water for about ten days before she would even feel the need to stretch her legs. Her interest peaked when she saw an orb of blue light streak across the Kokiri settlement. The light orb moved at high speeds and clumsily hit a fence before entering the house she had seen the Kokiri boy enter only a few minutes earlier.

The princess had described the fairy as being a shade of blue similar to that of the uniforms of the Hylian guard. The Hylian guard wore dark blue tunics, navy blue or royal blue, she couldn't quite remember which. In any event, the fairy was nearly the exact same color, one of only two fairies of that color she had seen. She did the math in her head. There was only one child out of the lot of forty who had blonde hair, two children out of every forty had a blue fairy, making the odds of a child having blonde hair and a blue fairy about one in two thousand. She hadn't been close enough to see the eyes of the boy and had foolishly not brought a spyglass with her on the observation mission. No matter, she would bet that when she saw them they would be blue, dark blue just like the color of the fairy and just like the princess had said.

Impa wondered what she should do now that she had confirmed the existence of the child from the princess's dream. She knew that the princess's dream was a magic power that all members of the royal family possessed, the power of foresight. The princess's dream would have accommodated for what would happen the way things were when she had the dream, which was basically what would happen without Impa interfering. If she did interfere it could change fate for better or for worse, or it could be fulfilling what fate intended. Impa immediately decided on what her mission would be. Follow and observe at all times, remain undetected, and support if necessary. Impa still disputed the last part of her decision in her mind. The boy would be fine if everything went the way Zelda had seen it, but Impa realized that her presence combined with the presence of the boy would almost double the number of monsters attracted to their magic aura.

Impa continued to remain still, her cloaking magic keeping her quite invisible to normal eyes. She hadn't bothered to use a deku nut to stun everyone nearby when she transitioned from visible to invisible, the purpose of the nut was to make it seem as if she had disappeared in a flash and was no longer in the area, whereas in reality she had really just turned invisible and was still in the exact same place. Since she wasn't being watched there was no need for theatrics, which would actually just attract attention to herself. She could feel the drain of the invisibility spell but an experienced sheikah like her would be able to maintain her invisibility for several days despite its massive drain on her magic reserves.

Impa continued to watch the tree house from high up on the western cliffs of the forest valley, where the cave in the cliff side was the only direct way from Hyrule field to the forest. A mere minute after the blue fairy entered the house, the boy and the fairy exited, the boy climbed down the ladder from the porch of his house and to the forest floor, where he was obscured for a few seconds by a hill before reentering her view, walking in the direction of the Deku Tree, the guardian of the forest.

Impa followed him, creeping along the tops of the cliffs, silently moving from place to place in the direction of the Deku Tree's clearing. She followed him closely as he walked down the path in the village. Eventually he reached a gap between two cliffs which was the only way to get into the clearing. The entryway was being blocked by a short and skinny Kokiri with red hair and freckles, she watched the two apparently argue for a minute or so and then the boy punched the red haired kid in the face, likely breaking his nose.

"So the hero has a good arm, but no sword to hold with it" Impa said to herself, noting that the boy had also punched left handed, another tiny thing that was famous about the heroes of old, they were always left handed. It wasn't a sure sign but it did, if anything, make it much more likely that he was the legendary hero.

_Schwooooooop_

Impa heard the zipping sound to her left and drew her dagger, spinning to the left to find a baba plant had just tried to attack her, she hadn't been mindful of her surroundings and had she taken another step before it rose she would have been in range of its snapping jaws. The carnivorous plant tried to bite at her but she jumped over its bulbous head and, in a single swift motion, severed the stem of the plant with her dagger. The dagger sliced cleanly through the stem of the carnivorous plant and the head died only moments after being severed from the main body. She wiped the sap off her dagger before returning it to the sheath in the small of her back and continuing with the mission.

_Repeat, with less stupidity_

She remembered the words her master had always used whenever she failed a training mission a long time ago. The good news was that she had removed one enemy from the path she would likely be taking on the way back, possibly speeding up the return trip. If the boy she was following was moving fast back through the village on the return trip than she would no doubt need that little bit of additional speed that she otherwise wouldn't have.

As it was, she already had lost sight of the boy who had circled around the side of the cliff towards the clearing, it didn't matter that she had lost sight of him on the way to the clearing since she already knew exactly where he was going, but to lose sight of him afterwards could result in the failure of her mission, which could easily mean the death of the boy who would grow up to become the hero her land needed.

She ran along the top of the cliff, continuing as fast as she could towards the clearing where the massive tree sat smack in the middle of the almost arena-like depression in the woods. She was careful not to make too much noise but there was a trade off between speed and stealth that had to be made to keep up with him.

She didn't have quite as far as the boy to move to get to the clearing where the forest guardian rested, so she made it there at the same time as he did, given the few seconds head start he had made. She kept in mind that the person she was following was much younger and shorter, and much less physically trained than her, therefore he would be very slow compared to her, especially since she was invisible and he didn't know he was being followed.

The boy entered the clearing and stood at the far end with his fairy hovering over his shoulder, as the guardian of the forest began to speak in his commanding tone, telling him exactly what Impa hoped he would.

((()))

Gannondorf's heavy boots of leather and iron rang sharply on the cobblestone floors of the corridors within the castle. Unlike the brown and red earth tones of the desert fortress where he was born, raised, and eventually took command, the castle had an sterile feel of being isolated from the rest of the world, a feeling that in troubling times could be a great comfort but could make a man go mad in peacetime. Gannondorf didn't like the feeling of being separated from the world, it was too clean and too fake inside the castle for his tastes but he could overlook that for a short time in order to insure his complete victory in the end.

Two Hylian guards walked past as he strode down the corridor and he heard their hushed and fearful whispers as he passed. He had heard all of the names he had been given 'Desert King', 'Dark Lord', 'Green Gills', the last one he had actually found to be a somewhat amusing jab at the sickly color of his skin. He was thankful that only some people could see it. His appearance changed based on who was looking. A smart and righteous man might see right through his magic and see his true form, while most men could only see a beautiful tan desert prince in shiny iron armor polished jet black. Gannondorf knew the power he had over the vision of others and he had not been afraid to use his powers for his own designs.

"That sand bastard is going to be the death of us… I can feel it." One of the guards who had walked past said when he thought they were out of earshot. Indeed they would have been out of earshot for any other mortal but Gannondorf had enhanced all of his senses through magical means and could hear every word the men said. It was very tempting to turn around and go discipline them but he would surely be reprimanded for it and with good reason. King Hyrule didn't want to see any of his guards hurt the same way that Gannondorf would kill any guest that harmed one of his own guards. Granted the king was far kinder and would likely only send Gannondorf away without a signed treaty, but the principal remained true, for the sake of maintaining good relations he refrained from taking action against the insult.

All he had to do to keep the insults from getting on his nerves was to remember what would happen to those guards who said them when he took over Hyrule. If he attacked the guard that had made the slur he would succeed in killing one enemy and would in the process unleash ten. But if he waited until he had taken control of Hyrule he could not only kill them unopposed, but he could kill their fellow soldiers, and their friends, and their children. He could make them all suffer for insulting his power, not just one out of a great many. All he had to do to calm himself and remember to save his rage for later was repeat one single phrase in his mind.

Gannondorf closed his eyes and envisioned Hyrule burning and a Gerudo flag flying over the castle tower.

Soon it will all be mine.


	3. The Summons of the Deku Tree

The Legacy of Hyrule

By: Robert Siegfried

Chapter 3: The Summons of the Deku Tree

"Oh Navi, thou hast returned."

The Great Deku Tree's voice was booming, coming from somewhere deep within the wooden monstrosity. Protrusions in the bark around the front of it gave it the appearance of having eyes (or eyebrows), a nose, and a mustache. Link had also heard that it had a mouth which it could open but he had never seen that himself. Something was definitely wrong with the Deku Tree though, it was definitely sick with something, something bad. Weeds were quickly sprouting from the ground all around the clearing and the bark of the great tree itself was peeling off and falling in flakes to the ground joining the brown leaves which had already fallen from its highest limbs.

"Link, welcome, listen carefully to what I, the Deku Tree, am about to tell thee." The Deku Tree said, its voice was slow and lacked most of the power it usually had, though it still was enough to put fear into anyone who didn't know not to fear it. As the Deku Tree began speaking, Link felt as if he were being watched, though he couldn't quite tell who was watching him. He figured whatever it was, likely was positioned on the upper left side of the cliffs overlooking the Deku tree's meadow, which was an area accessible by a secret path through the lost woods. He looked over in that direction for a second, but seeing nothing, turned his attention back to the Deku Tree.

"Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless, and full of nightmares."

Link wondered how the Deku Tree could have possibly known about his nightmares. The Deku Tree had magical powers but Link had never heard of him having an ability to read minds. It wasn't entirely unlikely that The Great Deku Tree did have such a power, but Link had never heard, nor imagined, that he did.

"As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it."

Link didn't quite understand what the Deku Tree was talking about, something involving the servants of evil causing his nightmares. it took him a few seconds more of thought to finally come up with an idea of what the Great Deku Tree was referring to. Evil, was the man from the dream, and he had servants, who caused his nightmares, that was the easiest explaination. Or even worse yet of a theory, the evil that The Great Deku Tree was referring to was actually much greater than the man from the dream, and that the man from the dream was a servant of that evil and he was causing the nightmares.

"Verily, thou hast felt it. Link, the time has come to test thy courage."

By this point Link was thoroughly confused, he didn't know why his courage need be tested nor why the great Deku Tree would need a test for something that could easily be determined by reading his mind.

"I have been cursed... I need you to break the curse with your wisdom and courage."

Link now was completely and utterly lost. He didn't even know why he needed to be tested, and now the Deku Tree was telling him that the test was to break a curse which was something that Link had no experience in doing. There was a fine line between courageous and stupid and Link was, by this point, sure that the Deku Tree was asking him to do something stupid.

"Dost thou have courage enough to undertake this task?"

Link didn't hesitate in answering the question. He knew that what he was about to do was stupid, likely dangerous, and definitely putting his life in danger, and the added fact that if he failed the guardian of the forest would die didn't help him at all. But then there was the knowledge of what would happen if he failed, and what would even happen if he refused.

"I have it twice!" Link exclaimed. The features of the Great Deku Tree's 'face' twitched upward ever-so-slightly, so far as Link could tell it was a smile.

"Thou hast verily accepted my final challenge, thou shall prove thy courage in dispelling this curse" The Great Deku Tree boomed. The mouth of The Great Deku Tree, which Link had heard of but never seen, slowly opened, revealing a dark and massive chamber on the other side.

"Without armaments, thou shall be of little assistance, a blade takes eternal rest deep within my roots, as no kokiri hath the courage to wield it in battle, if you discover it thou shall become its owner" The Deku Tree finished.

"Come on Link, we're wasting time, lets go save the Great Deku Tree!" Navi exclaimed, and with that, Link charged, unarmed, into battle against a curse he knew nothing of. If courage could be defined, it would be in what would ensue in a few short minutes. Link's battle to save everything he knew and cared for, his battle to save the kokiri from eminent doom.

((()))

Gannondorf sat at the stone table within the brightly lit chamber within Hyrule castle. His servants moments before had brought him the meal he had requested… meat. He examined the specimen which sat upon his plate. Meant to be eaten with… utensils. Knives he could understand, a combat implement, which could also be used to cut the meat into a manageable portion for one with a jaw too weak to cut through it. But a fork, he had no use for that, he threw the fork aside and it clattered once against the wall and a second time against the floor. He picked up the knife then and considered throwing it aside as well, but then inspected the blade. The very edge shone with a luster not seen on any knife Gannondorf had every held in his own hand. To test his theory, he slashed at the slab of steak with his blade, cutting it in half easily, even the bone.

_So the hylians have unwittingly informed me that all their weapons are gilded, even their kitchen implements._

Gannondorf smiled to himself and tucked the knife into a pouch on his side, he would figure out how the hylians gilded their weapons before he killed them all, then his weapons would be that much greater, to use in destroying the other nations that may oppose him.

He turned back to his meal, now cut into two halves, the vegetables were not of interest to him, he left them on the plate, he had ordered just meat. It was likely a hard order for the chef to comprehend, the hylians ate mostly vegetables, only meat for dinnertime meals, the chef likely thought that he meant he wanted meat with his lunch. It was a forgivable mistake, which would not be forgiven.

Gannondorf picked up the steak with his bare hands, crushing it to the point where it was almost pulverized. Blood ran out of the meat and down his arms, under his black armor, joining the pus and grime and old blood which was already there. Then he took a deep bite out of the steak, the blood then ran down his chin and he licked it off of his hands before taking a second bite. He growled in contempt as he realized it was partway cooked, another breach of his orders, but he ate the rest of the two pound slab of meat in five bites anyways. He let the blood stay on him, he didn't bother to wash except when the buildup within his armor began to grow unbearable, even for himself, usually once every three or four months.

He wiped off the blood from his hands on his crimson and gold patterned cape, despite being against his habits to do anything at all about his physical appearance, he didn't want to scare off the hylians before they could sign his treaty, maybe he would even clean his armor, maybe even clean himself. He laughed at the prospect, then took it seriously a moment later.

_Its all for the pictographs, when my treaty is signed I can dirty my armor again, but the blood will be of the hylians_

Gannondorf, with that thought in mind, stepped into the washroom, adding another thing to his meticulous list of details that would result in the total and absolute destruction of Hyrule.

((()))

Link's boots thumped loudly as he tripped over the wooden threshold of the Deku Tree's great mouth.

"Your first heroic step" Navi commented sarcastically as Link quickly regained his balance. He stepped into the darkness, with only Navi's light to see any deeper than what the limited light passing through the maw of the Deku Tree would provide.

"Shut up" Link laughed with embarrassment while proceeding deeper into what he determined to be the central chamber. The middle of the chamber was a hole twenty feet across almost completely blocked by a spider web of strands as thick as Link's arm, Link figured he could squeeze through if he needed to but first he needed to figure out a plan for what he was going to do.

"Alright, first thing is first, do you have anything at all that can be used as a weapon?" Navi asked. Link pulled the pouch off his side and put it on the 'ground' then proceeded to empty it of its contents. There were seven deku nuts, two deku sticks, and a slingshot but only eight seeds, which were the only things Link could find that could be used as pellets, besides small rocks. Link could easily tell Navi was good at tactical thinking, because she immediately determined what each item was useful for.

"Alright, the slingshot can be used as a weapon if we run into any small enemies, but I'm afraid it would only serve as an annoyance against larger monsters. These Deku Nuts won't be very useful unless an enemy gets close enough for you to flash them with one. I can't really see any use for the sticks other than to use as a club." Navi quickly determined. Link put the nuts and the sticks back in the pouch which he attached to his side but he kept out the slingshot with a pellet loaded, just in case he encountered anything nasty.

"our best bet is down, that is where the enemy and the sword are both supposedly located." Navi stated. Link nodded and tentatively reached out, touching the spiderweb with the tip of his finger. It was not sticky, that was a good thing, if it was adhesive his job would have gotten a whole lot harder.

"I'll see how far down it goes, I can already see vines growing on the far side so use those for handholds when you start coming down." Navi instructed. Link circled around the edge of the pit and saw the vines Navi was talking about. They were big and smooth like the ones that grew in the village, not perfect for climbing but they would do fine.

Navi flew down between the strands of the web and decended into the chamber. A circle of light followed Navi down the walls of the shaft as she cast a glow across the nearest walls. Link watched Navi fly further and further down the vertical shaft until there was a reflection off of water at the bottom. After a few seconds of motionlessness Navi flew back up to Link.

"Its about a hundred feet, you can't jump that far, even into water, whats worse, I can't even tell how deep it is" Navi stated. Link began squeezing between the web strands and grabbed the vines on the walls so he could climb down. It took a bit of doing since the web was not very flexible due to its thickness. After about a minute of trying to get through, he managed to squish through the small gap in the thick spiderweb and made it onto the vines. Navi made sure to fly close-by so Link could at least see the handholds and the footholds. After another three or four minutes of climbing, they reached the bottom. Link could tell he was in a large room, likely some sort of water chamber, which was for some reason empty. The chamber was so large that Link couldn't see the other side, and there were no visible markers as to which direction to go, no side of the room seemed to slope downward.

Link began to walk in the direction that he assumed was towards the center of the room. He soon found that the floor was soil and the ceiling was wooden, the ground closer to the center of the chamber was mushy like the floor of a swamp and a thick unnatural fog lifted off the mush, which made a sloshing sound when he stepped in it. Near the center of this chamber was a small hole barely large enough to crawl down through, Link didn't want to chance that yet, last thing he needed was to get stuck in a hole a little more than a hundred feet underground.

_Chit chit_

Link turned towards the source of the noise, he wasn't sure if he had heard something or not, but he swore it came from a hole on the far side of the room. It appeared Navi had heard it too, because she was looking in the same direction.

_Chit chit chit_

Link recognized the sound now, it was a sound similar to an axe on wood, but much louder and more distant, it was definitely something powerful cutting through the wood of the Great Deku Tree. Link walked in the direction of the noise to investigate its source, the hole on the far side of the room was not natural, that much was obvious, the edges of the hole were rough and looked like they had been chewed by a massive pair of mandibles.

Link slowly moved down the unnatural seeming tunnel and tried to spot the source of the noise, whatever it was either was nearby… or had stopped. Link listened carefully for any sign of movement, but didn't see or hear anything ahead, he pulled his slingshot off his belt and put a pellet in the sling, aiming forward.

"Link, you can't fight it till you have a sword…" Navi warned. Link waited a few moments before starting to back out of the tunnel.

A single glowing red eye stared out of the blackness. Link looked straight into the eye, its slit eye pupil glowed green while the rest was red. Link stepped back. The red eye stepped forward. It got close enough that Link could see a faint outline of an arachnid body behind the glowing eye which continued to stare at him, hungrily.

_I'm its diner_

Link came to that realization after about a second of the standoff. A moment later the creature screeched and charged forward. Without even aiming, link let loose a pellet, just as the glowing red eye completely filled his vision.

To his surprise, the monster fell backwards, the glowing red in its single eye reduced to a pale green. Link stared at the giant monster which lay twitching on the ground. He wondered for a moment if he had somehow killed it. But then as he watched, the color began to come back into the eye and he knew that he had only stunned it.

"Move, down the hole!" Navi shouted. Link ran towards the hole in the floor, but not before making a parting shot, kicking the monster right in the eye, leaving a discolored spot on a cataract. The monster got up but retreated back into the hole in the wall of the chamber. Link jumped down into the hole in the floor and crawled down into the lower section of the underground network.

The lower area was completely made out of dirt with only small roots protruding from the ceiling. Link dropped down into the room and his feet sunk about half a foot into the muddy ground, a little less than halfway to his knees. Walking through the mush was so cumbersome that Link took to jumping from rock to rock so his boots wouldn't get sucked off.

"There it is!" Navi exclaimed. Link turned to look where Navi was flying to and saw a stone table with a sword and wooden shield resting on it. Link slogged over to the table and picked up the weapon, which was attached to a bandolier style belt. Link quickly strapped the sword over his left shoulder, noting that it and the shield as well, were the same as from his dream.

Link practiced drawing the weapons a few times to get used to them. The sword was easy but the shield took some getting used to. Once he was confident in his ability to quickly access and use his weapons, he ran over to another chew-mark tunnel at the far side of the room, which he climbed up to get into the main level again. The monster was nowhere to be seen but there were several new tunnels just like the previous ones. Link followed the freshest looking tunnel, sword drawn.

This time the monster was waiting for him, and though it didn't know that he now had a sword, it knew all about his slingshot. Link followed the tunnel to a large open area with mist clinging to the floor, just like the last except with four large stone pillars. There was only one way in and Gohma made sure to close it quickly, smashing a rock formation above the door with his largest claw, causing a landslide that quickly blocked the exit and almost crushed Link himself. Navi too just barely managed to pass through the gap and enter the next chamber, realizing a second later that there was no way out of the room.

Link drew his sword and the steel blade shone in the low light of the chamber.

Gohma jumped at Link from above the rockslide she had just caused. Link rolled out of the way of a slashing claw and swung his sword at Gohma with all the force he could put behind the blade. The steel sparked harmlessly off the exoskeleton of the monster and Link jumped back when he realized his weapon had no effect on the monster, there had to be some way to use it though.

Link put the sword back in its sheath and ran over to a pillar, which he quickly ducked behind and used for cover. Gohma ran at him and tried to hit him with a claw again but he made sure to keep the pillar between him and the monster while he figured out what mode of attack to take.

The eye

That glowing red eye was the key to the puzzle, Link pulled out the slingshot and hoped the god that the monster hadn't learnt its lesson…

((()))

Princess Zelda sat in a slightly oversized and definitely over cushioned chair, looking out the window of her bedroom at the man who her father had let into his castle. Zelda didn't understand how her father could be so unwise, he even looked like pure evil in its simplest form.

_Business with the Gorons_

she knew better than to believe what he was saying, he was up to no good on death mountain, no matter what he told father. Zelda climbed down from her chair and walked over to the bedroom door. She had to do most of her things on her own for a few days since Impa was out tracking the person she believed was none other than the hero of time. There was no way to know for certain, but the boy from her dream was her best bet.

For a few moments she considered sneaking out of the castle using Impa's training and possibly meeting the hero herself. But if her dreams were accurate, than she would be wasting her time, because he would find her. She settled for heading down to the kitchens to ask for something for lunch, or dinner, it was about three in the afternoon so whatever she had could qualify as either. She walked down the stone corridor outside of her chambers and as she was walking down the hall she passed a scantily clad Gerudo warrior, one of Gannondorf personal bodyguards. While she was slightly jealous of the woman's physical condition, she also knew what Gerudo in the castle would eventually mean… trouble.

Her father was too trusting of people, that was his problem. In Hylian culture, deception was a sign of dishonor, but in the Gerudo culture, it was a way of life. The king had unwittingly allowed the enemy to go to a position where they would no longer need the power do destroy the great walls of Hyrule castle. Why destroy the wall when the door is unlocked.

She considered the possibility of herself being wrong and the Gerudo actually having good intentions, but she knew she would dismiss the notion the next time she saw Gannondorf in person. King Gannondorf Dragmire of the Gerudo, was not a peaceful individual, in any way, shape, or form, he was a warrior born to kill and he most certainly would before he left the castle… if he left the castle.

Zelda reached the kitchens and one of the chefs prepared her a meal of carrots, mushroom, and fish, probably a loach but possibly a smaller one like a green gill, she didn't know much about fishing or food so it was hard for her to tell. She ate quietly at a table while the cooks took their break and laughed and joked around in the back of the kitchen. Her life was lonely, a princess's life could never be filled with friends that were not bought in some way or another. Those that weren't directly paid to befriend her were instead only friends with her because of her money, either way, they were not real friends. She finished the meal quickly and then returned to her room, leaving the cleaned plate on the table. She entered her room, locked the door behind her, and walked over to the bookshelf on the far side of the room. A small chest rested on top of the bookshelf and she quickly undid the latch and opened it, inside sat a blue ocarina with a gold band around the mouthpiece. The ocarina of time. She pulled out the legendary instrument and played the first six notes of the royal family's signal song. Impa used to play it as a lullaby to her and now she was playing it for herself.

She set the ocarina back in the case and dropped backwards onto her bed, humming the notes to herself until her eyelids grew heavy, then she slowly drifted off to sleep, she didn't realize how much she dreaded falling asleep until after she did, because every time she fell asleep the nightmares would begin again…

((()))

Link loaded another seed out of his ever decreasing supply into his slingshot and ducked behind another pillar as Gohma charge him, unlike the previous failed attempts to hit Gohma's eye though, this time he jumped right into the monster's path and made sure it had no chance to avoid. Gohma barely managed to close its eye in time to block the pellet and Link took the opportunity to draw his sword and stab it forwards towards the monster's eye.

Gohma hadn't been prepared for two simultaneous attacks, the sword coming into its face almost immediately after it opened its eye. The blade stuck about six inches in before Link couldn't push it any further, not enough to blind Gohma completely, but a serious injury nonetheless.

Gohma tried to close its eye but the blade was stuck between its armored eyelids. Link braced his foot against Gohma's eyelid and then twisted the sword, there was a wet crack as a section of exoskeleton about the size of a fist broke off of the top eyelid. Once the section of eyelid was removed, Link jumped on top of the monster and pulled a deku nut out of his bag, which he proceeded to jam inside of Gohma's eyelid. The deku nut exploded in a brilliant flash of light, blinding Gohma, permanently. Gohma scampered backwards over to the wall. Moving around in lazy circles, unable to navigate. Green blood flowed out of the opening in the eyelid and Link decided to finish it while he still had the advantage. He ran forward and pulled out one of the deku sticks, which he jammed through the opening in Gohma's eyelid. He pushed it as far as it could go into Gohma's body, four feet of the eight foot pole snapped off and Link kicked it in so hard that it was entirely encased by the monster's body.

Gohma let out a shriek, an ear piercing shriek, a death rattle. Then it fell to the floor, and the blood stopped flowing out of its eye, it was plain to see that it was most certainly dead. Link stepped forwards to make sure, ready to gut it with his sword if necessary. But it was not necessary, a small blue flame sprouted from Gohma's eye and quickly spread to cover the entire form of the once terrifying monster. The beast quickly dissolved in the flames that had rapidly engulfed its body.

Once Gohma had completely dissolved, a circle of blue light appeared where the body had rested. Link put his sword back in its sheath and walked towards the circle of light, curious but not certain it was safe.

"Nice kill… don't worry about the circle, it's a teleportation spell." Navi stated. Link was still a little worried about it but stepped into the circle. The circle of light rose around him like a tube, then changed shape into a sort of crystal, which then carried him towards the ceiling. The crystal passed easily through the solid dirt and wood above him. He and Navi floated weightlessly towards the ceiling of the chamber, through it and a hundred feet of wood, rock, and soil, and into the clearing, miraculously in the same place where they had spoken to the Deku Tree before.

The Deku Tree's condition had obviously deteriorated in the half hour or so they had been inside. His bark had lightened considerably and was dotted by mosses and cracked off sections. The entire clearing was filled with broken branches and dead leaves, very few were still in the branches of the dying tree.

Not only was the tree sick, but the grasses growing around it had also begun to turn yellow and brown, leaving large swaths of the forest floor around the deku tree completely barren. Link wondered if that would happen to the whole forest if the Deku Tree died.

"Link, thou hast… verily… demonstrated… thy courage. Now I… The Great Deku Tree, have more… to tell thee." The Great Deku Tree said. Its voice no longer had the power it once possessed, it was weak and feeble sounding, like the voice itself could be broken into a million pieces with a hammer.

"An evil man… from the desert… placed this death curse upon me. This man ceaselessly uses his sorcerous powers in his search for the sacred and divine relic… the triforce…"

((()))

Before time began, before spirits and life existed, three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule. Din, goddess of power, Nayru, Goddess of wisdom, and Farore, goddess of courage.

Din, with her strong flaming arms cultivated the land and created the red earth.

Nayru, with her wisdom created the laws that would govern the land.

Farore, with her great magic created the beings who would uphold the law.

The three goddesses, their labors completed, ascended into the heavens. At the point where they left this world they left the divine relic, the triforce. Whoever holds the triforce in their hand has the power for their wish to be granted. Should a man with a righteous heart hold the triforce in his hand, a new golden age shall bring Hyrule into prosperity, but should a man with an evil heart gain the triforce, Hyrule will burn in eternal fires of hate, and greed.

The triforce exists in three pieces, courage, wisdom, and power. Whoever first holds the triforce shall get that piece which they most desire, the other two pieces respectively given to those who most desire them. Only through gathering and destroying the other two who possess the other pieces of the triforce can one come into possession of the entire sacred relic. Only a man who's heart is in balance can come to control the entire triforce on his own.

((()))

"Thou must never suffer that desert man in black armor. Thou must never allow him to lay his hands on the sacred triforce." The Deku Tree continued. Link listened intently to what the Great Deku Tree was telling him. It was always hard to understand what the Deku tree was trying to say because he spoke so differently from most of the kokiri. Link listened anyways though and tried to make the best sense of the meaning of the words that he could.

"Go to Hyrule castle, there thou will surely meet the princess of destiny." The Great Deku Tree stated. Link knew what a castle was, but had never seen one before. As for the princess of destiny, he wondered if it could have been one of the two riders on the white horse from his dream.

"I will pass away soon… though your efforts to break the curse were successful… I was doomed… before you started… but do not grieve for me… I have been able to tell thee of these… important matters…" Link jumped to his feet. How could the great Deku Tree be dying, what would it mean for the forest.

"I… entreat… ye… Navi…, good… bye… …"

Silence.

The forest fell under a spell of total silence. The forest guardian was dead. Link's fists clinched shut in fists of rage. Navi glowed dark yellow, then red with anger. The sky seemed for a moment to grow darker. Link finally took one step backwards and the sound returned to the forest, though far quieter than it had been before the Great Deku Tree's death. Suddenly, in a flash of light, the spiritual stone of the forest appeared at Link's feet, it was about the size of a closed fist, with the symbol of the Kokiri made in a pattern of solid gold on the surface of the emerald. Link reached down and picked it up solemnly, finding it to be far heavier than he expected. He slowly put it in the pouch at his side and looked up at the Deku Tree.

"Good-bye, Great Deku Tree" Link said quietly. Time continued to seemingly stand still as Link felt the gravity of the situation, the weight of what had just been placed upon his shoulders. The Deku Tree's final request, was for him to go to a land he had never seen before and save the world, he wasn't even quite sure how to get there yet, he just had to hope that Navi knew the way.

"Lets go to Hyrule castle… Link" Navi said in a disheartened voice. Link nodded and turned, slowly walking back in the direction of the village. He already knew what he was going to do. He was going to find the desert man, and he was going to kill him.


	4. Difficult Departure

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 4: Difficult Departure

The Great Deku Tree was dead.

Link took a step backwards, then another, then turn and ran back towards the village. The forest turned into a blur of green and brown as he sprinted through the gulley that was the only way from the Great Deku Tree's meadow to the village. Navi fluttered behind him, struggling to keep up with his sprint through the woods.

_Wham_

Link had been running so fast that he didn't see the fist come flying around the edge of the right cliff and slam into his stomach. The impact compressed his lungs and knocked the wind out of him. Navi kept on going and slammed into the face of the attacker, knocking him to the ground as well. It didn't take Link long to figure out who it was that had attacked him, Mido was lying on the ground a few feet away with a bruise on his forehead from where Navi had slammed into him. Link recovered faster than Mido, which was not unexpected since he had just fought an armored monstrosity at least ten times bigger than him. Mido however had no practice and had been punched in the nose about two hours earlier.

Link rolled backwards, ending up on his feet a few feet away, Navi floating in dizzy circles a few feet away, still dazed from her unexpected impact with the red haired fury. Link didn't wait for Mido to get back up, he gave him a parting kick in the ribs, then ran into the village.

Eventually Navi regained her orientation and continued to chase after Link, struggling to keep up. Eventually she did manage to reach him, mainly because wings tend to be faster than feet, no matter what size they are, but not till he was climbing the ladder into his house.

He climbed the ladder in half the time it usually took him, only about five seconds for fifteen feet of climb. He entered his house and grabbed what food and equipment he could find. He got another twenty shots for his slingshot since he only had two left after the fight with Gohma, then he grabbed four Deku sticks having only one left, and a handful of Deku nuts. Once he had gathered a good number of weapons he also grabbed two small loaves of bread and some salt-preserved filets of a fish he had caught in the pond a few days before. All of the food and equipment easily fit in the pouch he had gotten on his tenth birthday from Saria, its magical properties allowing the interior to expand to limitless size while still appearing as a normal pouch on the outside. It also neutralized about two-thirds of the weight, so while his total current load would total 30 pounds outside of the pouch, it was only 10 pounds within.

Link picked up a bottle and pulled a large jug of clean water out from under his table. Just as he was uncorking the bottle, he heard a sound of shouting outside. Navi fluttered over to the door and peered over the edge of the porch, barely dodging a rock thrown by none other than Mido, and he wasn't alone either. The rock flew through the door to the room and Link ducked behind the table as it soared over his head and hit the frame of his bed on the other side of the room. More rocks sailed through the doorway and some skipped off the table, one ending up shattering his bottle which sent broken glass into the right side of his face.

"We got trouble, Mido is pissed and he brought the 'know it all brothers' with him!" Navi shouted while flying back into the room, taking cover around the edge of the door to avoid the flying rocks.

"I noticed!" Link shouted angrily while yanking a fragment of glass out of his cheek. A trickle of blood began to flow from the wound and down his chin and neck. Link cursed and pulled off his shield, holding it over his head to protect from the projectiles.

"Scrub sucker! Tree killer! Scrub sucker! Tree killer!" The small mob gathering outside began to chant. Link slowly made his way over to the side of the door, keeping his shield between himself and the barrage.

He reached the edge of the door and pulled a Deku nut out of his pouch, keeping the shield in the other hand for defense. The shouting continued but it didn't appear that they were going to come up the ladder, or that they were going to run out of rocks. There was a reasonably large number of rocks in the depression around his house because it was the point of lowest elevation in the village, the problem was that gave the mob outside a near limitless supply of ammunition.

"I'm gonna jump down and use the nut on them, then we keep going to the lost woods, sound good? Link asked. Navi bobbed up and down as a yes response. Link gripped the nut tighter and held his shield close. He waited for a few seconds, mentally preparing himself for the attack, then he charged. He waited for two rocks to fly through the door in close succession, meaning only one or two of the attackers on the ground still had rocks in hand. He spun around the doorframe and ran towards the porch railing. Leaping over the railing, he held the shield in front of him and threw the deku nut at the astonished kokiri on the ground.

Link put the shield between his face and the ground as the nut flew towards the four hostiles on the ground. A rock hit him in the left ankle and Link felt a jolt of pain burn through leg, but it was a futile attempt to fight off his attack. When the nut hit the ground the flash of light temporarily blinded the attackers but was blocked out by Link's shield, so he could still see just fine while they were like blind mice. But the loud snap that accompanied the flash could not be blocked out by his shield and Link's vision blurred as the loud sound screwed up his inner ear.

Because the sound knocked off his balance, his landing on the ground was awkward and, unfortunately, left foot first. He felt the pain in his ankle redouble from what just the hit from the rock had done, almost definitely sprained or broken. Link didn't care at the moment though, the four kokiris who had attacked him were sprawled on the ground but they wouldn't be out for very long.

Link ran towards the lost woods, ignoring the growing pain from his injured ankle and all the other small injuries he had received, like the glass in his face. He ran up the hill towards the darkest section of the forest, if there was one place he could lose Mido, it would be in the lost woods. Link wasn't great at navigating the forest but he knew all of Saria's routes, and he knew exactly where he was going… the secret place…

((()))

Impa sat completely still as Link rushed past her, missing running her over by only a few feet. Invisibility had prevented him from noticing her presence. She had observed his counterattack on the four kokiri who had attacked him, it was brilliant, the young boy, Link, had mastered use of his superior position and weaponry to take out four armed opponents without injuring a single one of them.

His landing had been a bit off because he had neglected to account for the noise caused by the Deku nut, and because of that bad landing he now had an injured ankle, not perfect but definitely a promising sign of tactical thinking.

Impa turned and silently crept after the kokiri boy who was running deeper and deeper into the forest, completely ignoring the obvious ankle injury. His injury really was quite obvious, his foot was practically sideways, half the sole of his boot was visible every time his foot went down, that could be an unexpected difficulty.

Nevertheless, if Link needed assistance at any point, Impa was equipped to provide it. She had a dagger strapped across the small of her back and it would be very hard for any enemy she might find to fight her while she was invisible. She followed him through the woods, she would be unable to navigate them on her own, but the kokiri boy obviously knew his way so she followed him to wherever he was going rather than trying to find her own way out of the forest.

She heard the other kokiri who had just been destroyed slowly recovering from the effects of the Deku nut. They were all just children, but the boy matching the characteristics the princess had described was not like them, he was smarter, but he also had something else, he charged headlong into battle but not stupidly, he knew his enemies weaknesses and exploited them, staying oriented to his objective rather than the battle it took to get there. There was a word for that, and it was the single trait that defined the hero she was looking for.

Courage

((()))

Gannondorf gazed upon the masterfully made paintings on the walls of the Goron city underneath the surface of Death Mountain. Ever present was the rumble of the ring of fire burning high above the summit of the mountain, there was a reason it was called the mountain of fire. He liked the ever constant presence of fire, it felt… powerful… he liked it.

As for his plan, it was going swimmingly. He looked at the images of the dancing Gorons painted on the walls. Pathetic. Every other race of Hyrule but the Gorons had made such paintings thousands of years ago, but these paintings were new. If not for bombs, the Gorons would be long extinct, their only major export was what kept them alive, that and their exports of valuable minerals and metals from their deep mines kept them on strong terms of alliance with the hylians and Zora.

Gannondorf walked over to one of the many stairwells that led down to the bottom floor and strode down with his two Gerudo bodyguards following close behind. The underground city was almost as warm as the desert because it was so close to the molten core of the mountain, so the Gerudo warriors were not as worried about the temperature as they had been outside of the mountain, which at the current altitude was almost cold enough to freeze water.

One of his warriors ran down the stairs behind him a minute later with a small map in her hands. She walked straight up to Gannondorf with the map and handed it to him. Gannondorf unfolded the map and looked at the checked off sections of the Dodongos cavern.

"We found a large crop of bomb flowers on the north entrance to the caverns so we caved it in completely, but the west side entrance at the foot of the mountain we had to settle for blocking with a rather large boulder, we also successfully opened those sealed off caverns you told us about and got out just in the nick of time, for a minute there I thought we would need to fight our way out." The Gerudo warrior explained quickly. Gannondorf smiled and nodded.

"Excellent, I expect that the Gorons will attempt to enter the Dodongos cavern through their own entrance inside this city, and when they find that it is full of monsters… they will required the help of a skilled warrior such as myself." Gannondorf said. Three more Gerudo warriors who had come from the operation down in the caves ran over as well and fell into formation around their leader in the standard hexagonal position. Once his entourage was in position, Gannondorf marched down the rest of the stairs and into the main chamber of the bottom floor.

A few of the Gorons gave Gannondorf and his Gerudo warriors strange looks, not understanding who or what the Gerudos were. Most of them assumed the Gerudo were Hylian women with dark skin and red hair, so they weren't sure what to make of Gannondorf.

Gannondorf ignored their stares though and instead marched straight up to the doorway at the far side of the lowermost terrace level of the city and into the chambers of Darunia, 'big brother' of the Gorons. Gannondorf had heard many strange names for leaders of a country, but 'big brother' just about topped the list. He snorted in disgust at their unintelligence and entered the throne room, which was tiny compared to the throne rooms of the leaders of the Gerudo and Hyrule, and even of the Zora.

"Gannondorf, what are you doing in my dominion" Darunia asked. He was not as dumb as most of the Gorons, and he could sense trouble. Gannondorf just smiled and kneeled before the big brother of the Gorons.

"I am merely here to request brotherhood, brother, I wish to initiate trade with your species." Gannondorf stated. Darunia narrowed his eyes, examining Gannondorf with a shrewd mind uncommon with a Goron as great as himself.

"What is it you have to trade?" Darunia asked, carefully choosing his words. He didn't want to give Gannondorf and opening in his words that he could exploit. Gannondorf just kneeled there.

"The finest glass for a hundred miles, sandbag barriers, swords and shields and spears, mud bricks, many things. We wish to trade them in exchange for your chief export, explosives." Gannondorf explained. The deal was partway sincere. Gannondorf did indeed want the bombs which only the Gorons were capable of producing, but he also didn't want to pay for them.

"Big brother!" someone shouted outside the throne room. Gannondorf smiled, the panicked Gorons were right on cue. A Goron rolled into the throne room and stopped in a kneeling position infront of Darunia.

"the east and north entrances to Dodongos cavern are blocked!" the Goron exclaimed. Darunia began to glow slightly as his anger became visible and heated up his rock form.

"what about the entrance within the city!" Darunia asked angrily.

"we tried sir, the Dodongos were waiting inside, me and Garbus tried to enter the caverns but they got him and I narrowly escaped!" the Goron exclaimed. He showed a deep but not lethal gash on his right shoulder to prove it.

"Gannondorf! You have brought this upon us! Only a sorcerer such as you could summon the Dodongos back from their eternal grave!" Darunia exclaimed. Gannondorf gave a shocked face but in actuality knew he was basically found out.

"Nonsense! To prove our brotherhood I will destroy the monsters in the Dodongos cavern for a small charge, nothing more than simply the spiritual stone of fire" Gannondorf explained. Darunia stared at him with narrowed eyes, he saw through the façade of sincerity and saw the true purpose behind Gannondorf visit.

"Come on, Darunia, give me the spiritual stone, only then will I open the cavern for you" Gannondorf offered.

"No, leave my city and take your vile witches with you!" Darunia exclaimed. Gannondorf turned and stormed out of the Goron throne room. Without the Dodongos cavern the Gorons would all starve to death, and then he could take the stone from them with no resistance.

The spiritual stone of fire would most certainly be his, it would just take a short time longer than he expected. He left the Goron city and he and his bodyguards mounted the horses waiting outside. He would first be accepted as an ally of the hylians, then he would claim the spiritual stone of water and return to the forest to claim the spiritual stone of the forest. It would only be a matter of time before he had all three…

((()))

Link ran into the cliff-enclosed clearing which was the secret place that he and Saria shared. The sunlight shone through the trees above and when the wind made strange patterns of light dance across the floor of the sacred forest meadow. The back of the meadow was dominated by a temple which the stairs to were broken. The center of the clearing also contained a hexagonal stone platform with a strange insignia on the center of three stacked triangles and the symbol of the ruined palace.

The sounds of the small mob chasing him had died down but were still audible in the distance, the odds of them finding their way through the forest and the maze to the meadow. Only he and Saria knew the way through the maze to get to the meadow, even though Mido had tried on many occasions to figure it out.

The sounds of the mob, however, were completely drowned out by the sound of Saria's ocarina, she continued to play her song which the animals and birds of the forest had taken to singing along to, there was a mysterious power in her notes. Link was always cheered up by the sound of her music no matter how bad his day was, as if the notes themselves had the power to make his day better.

She played the song all the way till he was only about three feet away, then her eyes snapped open and she lowered the ocarina, though the birds still sang the melody so it was still prevalent over the voices of the mob.

"You're being followed. They won't find us though" Saria stated.

"The Great Deku Tree is dead, Mido is trying to make people believe that I did it. The Great Deku Tree told me that I need to go to a place called Hyrule and find the princess of destiny" Link said. Saria nodded, knowing what he said was most certainly true.

"I always knew you would leave the forest someday, because you're different from me and my friends" Saria said slowly, choosing her words carefully since it was quite possible that she would never see Link again.

"I know that I'm different, but I just want to be…" Link started.

"I don't care if you're different, you will always be my friend Link, these last thirteen years, you're different, but that is what makes you better than everyone else. It is the will of fate that has determined that you and I shall no longer be together, but no matter what they say about you, you are the greatest kokiri who ever lived, and I will love you forever no matter what" Saria stated. Link heard the shouting getting closer, likely Mido and the know it all brothers were lost in the maze outside of the meadow. Saria cupped her hands around her ears like small bowls and used them to amplify her hearing.

"They're cutting through hedges; they're definitely determined to catch you." Saria stated. Link looked through the gap he had just passed through and saw the four chasing him cutting through the hedges that would have otherwise made passage through the maze impossible for anyone but Link and Saria.

"That way is already cut off, I have a secret route, this will take you out of the forest." Saria stated. Link followed her over to a camouflaged trap door on the far side of the clearing which led into an underground grotto similar to the one that Saria had used in hide and seek earlier that day.

"This is part of Parapa palace, are you mad!" Navi exclaimed while looking down into the darkness below. "That place is probably crawling with bots! And maybe worse things!"

"There is no other way, Navi. Do your best to guide link through to the other side. This tunnel leads straight to Hyrule field, don't take any side corridors." Saria instructed. The sounds of shouting were getting very close now and Link jumped down into the hole, standing at the top of some ruined stairs he was at about waist height underground.

"Take this to remember me Link, because I will never forget you." Saria said, she handed her ocarina to Link and he held it reverently in his hands for a moment before putting it in his pouch.

"I will always remember you Saria; I hope we see each other again." Link said hopefully. Saria kneeled down and grabbed him in a tight hug for a moment before getting back to her feet and pushing him underground and shutting the hatch. Mido and the know it all brothers had arrived in the clearing.

"What are you doing in my meadow?" Saria shouted angrily.

"uh… sorry, we thought Link went this way… did you see him?" Mido asked.

"No I have not! I've been looking for him all day! I bet you cut through my hedges too!" Saria exclaimed. Link couldn't hear any more of her argument because he was moving further and further away from the hatch. Once again, just like inside the Great Deku Tree, the only light was what Navi generated, so she stayed very close to Link as he proceeded deeper into the underground remains of Parapa palace.

"Watch out for movement, a lot of these temple remains have bots in them" Navi warned.

"What's a bot?" Link asked. He had never seen or heard of a bot before since he lived in the forest so he was curious about what he would be fighting against.

"its like a chu except smaller and harder" Navi explained. Link now knew what he was looking for and drew his sword and shield in anticipation, following the lead of Navi.

The entire tunnel looked as if it could collapse at any moment. The ceiling was leaking and vines and mosses hung from it almost to the floor, which was covered in mud and puddles of water from the ceiling. The ceiling was also supported mainly by marble columns, which were also breaking and falling apart, half of them were already broken and the other half were damaged or close to falling apart. Several stones had already fallen from the ceiling and had broken into pieces or cracked the stones of the floor. The thing that worried Link was that the tunnel was gradually sloping downwards and was therefore going further and further underground. At one point Link saw a hole going straight up through several hundred feet of soil before reaching the surface, leaving a circle of light on the ground.

Soon the water began to get deeper too, the puddles on the floor began to merge together and grow deeper. At the point where it was about waist deep, Navi suddenly let out a screech, Link spun around, swinging his sword, and bisected a dark shape that had been headed straight towards his head. The two halves of the bot that had just jumped at him fell past him and erupted in blue flame, continuing to burn even under the water.

"Nice hit." Navi commented as the blue fires under the water finally flashed out. Link put his sword back in its sheath as the water began to get deeper. Soon he was having to swim down the hallway, and the ceiling was getting closer by the minute. Soon he reached the place where the water met the ceiling, end of the road.

"end of the line, unless you have a spare set of gills" Navi commented jokingly. Link treaded water for a few seconds, considering his options. He looked into the water to try and see if his solution could be found there, and it was.

"Navi, go under my hat for a second" Link asked. Navi complied and as a result her light was no longer present, meaning the corridor should have been completely dark. Light shone from an exit, just on the other side of the submerged section of corridor was some sort of exit to the tunnel.

"Alright Navi, hold your breath!" Link exclaimed before diving down under the water. Swimming was made difficult by the injury to his left ankle, compounded by the gear he was wearing and carrying. Still, he was good enough at swimming that he was easily able the make it the scant 30 feet to get to the other side of the submerged section of tunnel. Once he was out of the tunnel it was another twenty feet up to reach the surface of the small pond he found himself in. he inhaled deeply the fresh air of the surface. Much better than the moist, stale air of the underground tunnel. The kokiri had never liked underground places, they were too tight and claustrophobic compared to the forest where they usually resided.

He heard a sputtering sound above his head and Navi flew angrily out from under his hat. The color of her aura had changed, dark angry red rather than the usual light blue. She smacked into his forehead repeatedly while he swam towards shore.

"Nice warning! What was that, half a second, I almost drowned!" Navi exclaimed.

"sorry, I'll try to give you a bit more warning next time" Link promised while climbing up onto shore, he groaned as he stepped on his left foot, which had been getting progressively worse over the course of the last half hour.

He pulled off his boot and looked at the injury to his leg. His ankle, right where his foot met his leg, was swollen and had turned a dark shade of purple. Link took one of his deku sticks out of his pouch and broke off two sections about the length of his leg. He then tied them around his foot and both sections of his leg so his ankle wouldn't move when he walked. It was at this point that he realized how hungry he was. He pulled one of the loaves of bread out of his pouch and snacked on it, taking a few bites before putting it back in the pouch and walked in the direction of the tallest hill he could see from his location, so he could get a good vantage point from which he could see where this castle was. he walked in the direction of a hill to the north which appeared to be near the middle of the large field, the hill itself obstructing his view of the rest of the field.

His leg still hurt to walk on but not as much as it had before, but the splint he had improvised was taking its toll on his speed. He had misjudged the distance to the top of the hill and while he thought it was a half mile it was really more like three. By the time he reached the top of the great hill it was almost sunset and he was worried more about where he was going to spend the night than how he was going to get to the castle. When he reached the top of the hill he could easily see the castle in the distance. He realized though that the castle was almost ten miles away and could just barely make out the drawbridge rising for the night. It was the same castle as had been in his dream and that scared him.

To his left about a mile away was what appeared to be a ranch. Link knew that in the forest it was generally custom to allow someone to spend the night and he hoped that the same unsaid rule applied in this land called Hyrule. So instead of continuing towards the castle, he turned left and headed towards the ranch, trying to stay to the marked path in the dimming light.

"Link, hurry up" Navi instructed. Link could hear an edge of fear on the small fairy's voice however and wondered what exactly it was about. He could hear a wolf howl in the distance but wasn't really worried about that, wolves tended to avoid the kokiri and that one that he heard was likely miles away.

There was a sound like that of someone digging with a shovel about fifty yards away and when Link looked over there was a man standing at about the place where the sound had come from, slowly limping in his direction, he looked like he was either injured or crippled in some way.

"Link, move!" Navi ordered. Link didn't listen, he turned towards the man who was limping towards him. When he got closer he seemed to become more excited and moved faster, and link could see a strange glow to his eyes, a sickly green glow like could be produced by nothing in nature.

"Link, get the hell out of here, now!" Navi shouted. Link stood fixated on the man who began to look stranger and stranger by the minute. It wasn't till he was only ten feet away that Link realized just what exactly was wrong with the man, it was that the man was dead. The man limping towards Link was a walking skeleton.

Link gasped in surprise and tripped backwards. The skeletal figure tried to jump on top of him and Link kicked him away with a two booted kick. That was when Link saw that there was definitely more than one enemy. More strange 'men', were approaching from every direction. Link drew his sword and shield as he jumped to his feet, and prepared for a very lopsided battle…

((()))

Impa had a very difficult time following Link into the underground tunnel, having to sneak in within about two feet of him to get down into the hatch, without him or Saria noticing, even invisible it was quite a feat. She then had followed him through the dark corridors, using a spell of night vision she had been able to follow him a mile through the dark tunnels and into the pond in Hyrule field, she memorized the location of the tunnel incase she ever had need to use it. The ancient temples of Hyrule were far more expansive than was known by most people, even herself.

Now she was watching the boy she had been following since that morning be mobbed by a whole ton of stalchildren. She considered intervening, but also knew it would be harder to do without being detected by Link. She watched the battle slowly unfolding before her and watched the enemies who were trying to circle around behind him. There was one directly behind him that would be on him in about five seconds, and it appeared Link didn't see it. Impa snuck into the battle and drew her dagger, it was time for her to intervene.


	5. Ranch Life

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 5: Ranch Life

Link drew his sword and prepared for a very lopsided battle. The first stalchild was the same one he had first seen. Link swung his sword in a wide arc and knocked its head clean off, sending it stumbling in aimless, blind circles. Another one came from his right and tried to swing its claws at him. Link dodged the claws of the attacker and retaliated with his sword, hacking off one of its arms and knocking it to the ground. While he was handling the second attacker a third stalchild grabbed him around the neck and tried to pull him to the ground, while a fourth behind him prepared to use its claws on him.

"Link, break free, you can outrun them!" Navi shouted. Link heard the advice but it was a bit too late, the third one was holding him in a headlock with superhuman strength and he couldn't break free. The fourth one came up and used its claws to open three deep gashes in his shoulder, which was fine when considering the fact that a final push from Link managed to make it hit that instead of his neck.

The fourth stalchild prepared to swing again but an invisible blade sliced it in half before it could. The stalchild burned in a green flame that lit up the area with an eerie green glow. The third stalchild appeared confused but Link didn't wait to figure out what had happened to the fourth stalchild, he used all his strength to break free of the grip of the confused enemy, then proceeded to hack it to pieces. The second stalchild had just regained its balance and was on its feet and Link took it back down, this time completely destroying it. He did the same to the helpless first one, which could not see or hear him.

"What the hell happened to that one?" Navi asked. Link wasn't quite sure, it seemed like it had been cut in half but there was nobody there to have done it. It was as if it had been done by a ghost.

"I don't know, but I'm not sticking around to find out, let's go!" Link exclaimed. He started moving as quickly as he could in the direction of the ranch, ignoring the glowing eyes chasing him from every direction but forward, their numbers were increasing as well. By the time Link had covered a quarter mile he was pretty well exhausted from running on a splint, and there was also the issue of the ever increasing number of pursuers, which was now at about twenty.

Link ignored the exhaustion which was not only slowing him down, but his racing heart was pumping more blood out of his shoulder wound and he didn't have time to stop and bandage it. He kept running in the direction of the ranch, wondering after a minute if it was possible that the ranch was locked up to keep the stalchildren out.

"Keep running, I'll go ahead and get someone to unlock the gate" Navi said, her night vision obviously much better than Link's, being able to see details like that. Link nodded and continued running, figuring he was more than halfway to the ranch; he would keep running regardless of distance though.

Suddenly, one of the monsters popped up in the middle of Link's path, he swung his sword without stopping and reduced it to a pile of bones. His leg and shoulder continued getting worse but he didn't give up. Apparently the ranch was much closer than he thought, he spotted the open gates being guarded by a red haired girl armed with a bow and arrows only about fifty feet before running into it. He wouldn't have seen the gate at all if it hadn't been for Navi sitting on the red haired girl's shoulder generating light.

"Hurry!" the red haired girl shouted. Link had no problem following her instructions and ran through the open gates, which she slammed shut and locked behind him. Link stumbled sideways into the wall and then slid down to the floor.

"Are you crazy, taking a stroll out in the field at night like that, are you hurt?" the girl asked.

"No, just tired" Link said, starting to feel a little dizzy from the blood loss out of his shoulder. The girl looked at his various wounds for a second and then continued talking.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Link, I'm from the forest" Link stated. Navi flew over and went under his hat.

"Oh, you're a fairy boy from the forest, that explains why you didn't know about the stalchildren. Well, my name is Malon, and you may want to hold onto my arm because you definitely shouldn't be walking on that leg." Malon said. Link stood up and held onto her arm for support, staring curiously at her hair. He had never seen a girl with that color hair before, all the kokiri girls had green and blonde hair.

"What is there something on my face?" Malon asked. Link came back to focus on the situation.

"No, its just I've never seen a girl with red hair before." Link stated as Malon led him back towards the ranch house.

"Neither have I, besides myself that is" Malon confirmed. Link found that curious, that Malon was possibly the only person in the world with red hair. Then he remembered the evil man from his dream, he had red hair too. Was it possible they were on the same side, that the person who had just let him into her ranch was really an ally of the enemy? But there were kokiris with red hair too, only boys though, Link decided not to ask questions about it.

"Alright, here we are, lie down on the table inside and try to relax." Malon ordered. She opened the door to the ranch house and led Link inside, making sure he had her support until he was safely lying down on the table.

"Daddy!" She shouted upstairs. There was a sound of crashing on the top floor and Malon cringed, likely knowing exactly what was broken.

"What!" an annoyed sounding man shouted from the top floor. Link had to keep from smiling at how stupid the voice sounded.

"I found another idiot wandering in the field at night; I'll fix him up, promise not to kill him when you wake up in the morning!" Malon shouted up the stairs.

"Alright, fine, whatever!" the man shouted upstairs. There was the sound of grass shifting on the floor upstairs and then someone climbing back into a bed. Malon walked over to a cabinet against the far wall of the ranch house. She opened it and selected a vial of clear liquid.

"Alright, drink this, it'll put you to sleep, then I can work on your shoulder and leg." Malon ordered. Link took the vial gratefully and uncorked it, drinking down the whole thing in a few seconds. Almost immediately his thoughts became cloudy and he began to have trouble keeping his eyes open.

"What was that?" Link asked as Malon removed his sword and shield and put them on the bench next to the table.

"Horse tranquilizer" Malon said. Link wanted to laugh at that but he didn't have the strength left to do so, his eyes closed and he slowly fell asleep…

((()))

Impa sat in the corner, watching as Malon with the assistance of the fairy… Navi she believed she was named, carefully cleaned out and bandaged Link's shoulder. Of all the places he could have ended up and been safe for the night, Lon Lon ranch was easily the best. Malon treated people who ended up in the field at night usually about twice a month, so she was well prepared for both of Link's major injuries.

Link definitely had some rough edges when it came to combat, he wasn't able to handle sudden changes to the playing field very quickly, that needed improvement, as well as his ability to fight in general. Though he had shown definite gift in the art of combat, he didn't have nearly the skill he would need to be the hero that would save Hyrule from destruction.

She inspected his weapons, which sat on the bench nearby. His sword was razor sharp and his equipment was in fairly good order and supply. There was a small crack running from the top to the bottom of his shield but if all went well he wouldn't be using that shield for very much longer, he would get a better one in the castle. All and all, his equipment was plenty for the time being.

Impa continued to watch Malon operate on Link from her invisible position on the bench. When she was satisfied that Malon was doing a good job, she walked over to a pile of hay bales in the corner and lay down behind them. Sleeping regenerated energy a little bit faster than it was expended while using the invisibility spell, so eight hours of sleep would give her the equal regeneration of two while she was invisible, but Shiekah had the skill to control their sleep and when they awoke and Impa tied it to the state of Link's wakefulness, when Link awoke a spell would awaken her as well. Once she was satisfied that her site was far away from where any person might tread, she closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep…

((()))

… Link heard a cuckoo crow in the distance. His awakening was accompanied by a dull throbbing in his leg and shoulder that just wouldn't go away. It took him a moment to remember the events of the previous day, Navi's message, the death of The Deku Tree, his flight from the forest, and most importantly, getting wounded on several occasions, that accounted for the fact that his leg and shoulder still hurt.

"Ow…" Link said jokingly in a monotonous voice. He leaned up into a sitting position and experimentally tried rotating his foot. There was no response at all from his foot and he couldn't feel anything below his ankle, he didn't know for sure but for the time being he would assume that no feeling in his foot was a bad thing.

"Rise and shine fairy boy!" Malon shouted from upstairs. She came bounding down the stairs with a small pair of tweezers in hand.

"I'm actually not quite done with you, I couldn't quite finish with getting the glass out of your face because I was so tired and my hands were shaking, but I can do it now so lie back down." Malon instructed. Link did as he was told and lay down on the table. There was a small yawning sound off to his right and Link saw his hat, which was lying on the table, rise slightly as Navi awoke and stood up inside it.

Malon stood next to the table, her fiery red hair hanging in tangled clumps from what Link guessed was a very restless night. She turned his head sideways and with the pair of tweezers began to pluck out each individual piece of glass. Each shard of glass which was pulled from his skin was its own personal piece of agony. The smallest ones were the worst because sometimes they would break and a small piece would be left behind, meaning Malon would practically have to do that piece twice. It took almost a half hour of tedious work with constant inspection from Navi, who was small enough to get a close look inside each cut and make sure that there was no glass left inside. She could even grab some of the smaller pieces that Malon couldn't get with the tweezers if she was careful to not cut her hands.

Finally, when Malon was done pulling all the glass out of his cheek, she walked back over to the cabinet she had gotten the vial of horse tranquilizer from, and this time produced a small bottle of red fluid.

"What is that?" Link asked. He wanted to know what exactly it was he was drinking before he drank it this time, for all he knew, the contents of the bottle could be human blood, it was certainly the right color and Link could see stranger things within the cabinet.

"This is red potion, its fairly common in Hyrule, it speeds up the healing process, makes it faster than it would be unassisted." Malon explained. She measured out about a third of the bottle into a shot glass-sized measuring cup. She handed it to Link and he drank it down, cringing at the flavor but finishing it anyways.

"How much faster?" Link asked. Malon thought about the question for a second, likely being one she never had to answer since she had never met someone who didn't know about red potion.

"That leg injury will take two months to heal on its own; this potion will make it take two days." Malon explained. Link couldn't believe that claim until he experienced it himself, but apparently he would because he was getting red potion at that moment. Malon handed Link the bottle after he had finished the shot-sized glass from it.

"Drink half of that tomorrow morning and the other half the day after, by then your injuries should be fully healed." Malon instructed. Link looked at the bottle in wonder, not comprehending of the power that that bottle of red fluid had.

"Why didn't you just give me this in the first place? Why did you spend so much time bandaging the wounds?" Link asked.

"This just speeds up your body's healing process; it does not make your body better at fighting things like gangrene. Using red potion as an excuse not to treat a wound can be a fatal mistake." Malon replied. Link nodded in understanding while slowly getting to his feet. He quickly found that his left foot could support very little, if none of his weight at the moment, so Malon handed him a wooden board which he could borrow to use as a crutch for the time being.

Link's worry about not being able to feel his foot soon went away as after only a few minutes under the influence of the potion, he could already feel a tingling sensation in his toes that was slowly spreading up towards his ankle. Unfortunately, when the sensation went away, it was replaced by a dull aching throb.

"I need to get to the castle, how long till I can walk there?" Link asked Malon as she led him out of the ranch house. Malon closed and latched the door to the ranch before answering the question.

"My father is taking a wagon into the castle today, he's delivering milk, he'll be leaving at noon, about four hours, and will arrive long before you could if you left now." Malon answered. Link nodded, knowing that the wagon would be easier on his leg and faster as well. For the time being he would have to wait to head into town though. He already saw Talon, the man who had been stumbling around and cursing on the top floor the previous night, loading crates full of large bottles of milk into the back of a wagon, along with a tall lanky man in suspenders with a handlebar mustache.

"The fat pig is my father, talon, the string bean is Ingo." Malon explained quickly. Link grinned at the funny descriptions of which was which.

"You don't like them?" Link asked.

"My dad is just stupid, not mean, but Ingo is a mean bastard, he's bitter over just about everything." Malon replied. Link was about to ask about why she didn't like them, but didn't get the chance, because just as he opened his mouth to speak, a dark brown horse with a white mane rode forward and skidded to a halt next to Malon. Malon laughed as the horse stuck its nose in her dress pocket and stole a carrot she had been carrying in it.

"This is Epona… she's the craziest horse on the ranch" Malon stated. The horse turned and looked at Link, mainly focusing on Navi who was floating around his head. After a few seconds of staring at Navi, Epona lashed out and tried to bite her out of the air. Navi flew back and snorted indignantly at the horse.

"Hey!" Navi shouted at the horse. The horse jumped in surprise when Navi spoke and reared back, forcing Link to duck to the side as it almost kicked him. Epona ran off into the other end of the corral after narrowly missing hitting Link in the face. Malon just laughed as if it were all a funny joke, which Link didn't understand at all.

"Looks like Epona is afraid of you" Malon stated. Link couldn't believe that Malon had taken what had just happened so lightly. Had he been hit she likely wouldn't have found it so hilarious.

"Yeah, I think I noticed" Link replied sarcastically.

"Here, sing this melody, she won't be so afraid of you anymore." Malon said. Malon sang a short melody which Link could vaguely recall her humming the previous night.

"One problem" Link grinned. Malon looked at him questioningly, expecting an answer for what the problem could possibly be.

"I can't sing"…

((()))

"Lord Gannondorf, we have a problem"

A Gerudo warrior, Gannondorf estimated her to be thirteen or fourteen, likely an apprentice of one of his bodyguards. Gannondorf stood from his seat where he was examining a sheet with his schedule for the day.

"What problem?" Gannondorf asked, slightly annoyed that he had been disturbed by what was likely a minor inconvenience.

"The spiritual stone of the forest is missing"

Gannondorf froze, he had been preparing to scold the young apprentice for disturbing his work, but this was truly an important reason to be disturbed.

"How, who took it!" Gannondorf angrily exclaimed. He could tell that he was definitely a fearful sight in his rage. He could tell because the Gerudo apprentice was cowering against the edge of the door, likely fearing for her life.

"Our spies saw the kokiri boy, the one with blonde hair and blue eyes, he killed Gohma and the guardian of the forest gave him the spiritual stone before dying." The servant stammered. Gannondorf sat back down and the fear in the Gerudo warrior's eyes diminished.

"Why did they not kill him, and take the stone themselves!" Gannondorf questioned. The Gerudo warrior apprentice slowly returned to a standing position and proceeded to answer the question.

"The boy was being watched too, by a powerful Shiekah, I am not sure by which one, my master, Sashi, can give you all that sort of information." The apprentice replied. Gannondorf nodded, slightly annoyed by needing to go to someone else for further information, but to find all three spiritual stones, he had infinite patience. He stepped out the door and into the hallway to try and find the warrior Sashi. Then he stuck his head back into the room, looking at the apprentice.

"What is your name, apprentice?" Gannondorf asked. It took the apprentice a moment to realize that it was her that was being addressed. She stammered for a moment before managing to get her name out.

"Thebes… Apprentice Sophia Thebes" She stammered, apparently surprised by the fact that the king of the Gerudo would want to know her name.

"Apprentice Thebes, you seem like the kind of person I can trust, I would like to give you a special assignment, it will be very dangerous but I think you can handle it. I just have one question, what is your rating in stealth proficiency?"…

((()))

"So basically how we keep the ranch running, is we sell approximately four hundred gallons of milk per week for four rupees a gallon, and four hundred eggs for a rupee each, producing a profit of about two thousand rupees per week. That money goes into two things. It costs about five hundred per week in taxes to own this ranch, then there are expenses for food and water which are about a hundred a week, then there are expenses for things like lantern oil and tools and equipment and feed and such which total about another thousand. So we end up with four hundred that is pure unused profit, me, Dad, and Ingo, get a hundred a piece per week to spend however we choose, and the last hundred goes into the bank, and at the end of the year we buy more cows and horses which we use for breeding and selling to make additional profit. We still keep about two thousand in the bank at the end of the year and that adds up to what will eventually be enough to buy additional land. Additional land would allow us to own more cows and hire more hands for a larger profit, so does that all make sense?" Malon explained.

Link regretted asking the question. The explanation of how the ranch was run was so long and tedious he could hardly understand it at all, though Navi seemed to understand all of it.

"Aren't there other costs like upkeep for the buildings, how do you account for that?" Navi asked. Link wanted to groan in frustration as Navi asked for what would be another long and tedious explanation. Malon was about to start talking but then there was a shout from up near the stables.

"Hey Malon, if you and that fairy boy are ready, the wagons are all loaded and we can head into town early!" Talon shouted from over by the stables. Malon helped Link to his feet and he limped over to the wagon, still using the wooden board for support but not needing it as much as before.

"Alright, climb aboard" Talon instructed while grabbing Link's arm and helping him aboard the wagon. Link accepted the help and was soon sitting on top of a milk crate across from Malon while Ingo and Talon sat in the front. Ingo drove while Talon and he argued politics.

"How long should the trip into town take?" Link asked. Malon thought about the question for a second.

"Um, it really depends on how many people are moving in and out of town since there is only one drawbridge for the entire castle. I would estimate it would take about an hour from here to get inside but it can take two or it can take only 45 minutes." Malon explained quickly.

"Ah, that makes sense" Link replied. He reclined backwards and found that his shoulder was only a little bit sore when he leaned against it; he pulled up the sleeve of his tunic and unwrapped the bandage to take a look, finding that the once deep wounds had been replaced by thin white scars which were slowly fading away.

"It works quickly, doesn't it" Malon commented. Link nodded feeling his ankle too was far better than it had been that morning. Navi too inspected the healed wounds on his shoulder; she was obviously impressed by the speed at which the wounds had healed.

"yeah, it does" Link replied, he decided to make sure all his equipment was still intact from the battle the previous night. He pulled out his shield and checked it over, finding a small crack running from top to bottom down the center of the shield, he put it back on, and pulled out his sword, which appeared to be in perfect working order. After that he checked all the equipment in his bag, which was all in good condition.

Link was about to close his bag when he spotted the ocarina Saria had given him. He reached down into the pouch and pulled it out, looking it over, inspecting it for damage.

"You can play that?" Malon asked. Link responded by playing the song that Saria always played in the forest. Malon seemed to enjoy it so much that Link played through it twice. Finally after about five minutes he stopped the highly repetitive tune.

"Well then, you can play Epona's song on that, you don't need to be able to sing!" Malon exclaimed.

"Thank you, that makes me feel so much better." Link said while lifting the ocarina.

"I'm completely serious, you don't need to have any singing talent at all to play an ocarina, so play my song on it, follow after me" Malon said. Link could hear Navi giggling underneath his hat at the unintentional insult that Malon was repeatedly giving him.

Link frowned, slightly angry at the fact that he had to get the most annoying fairy he had ever met. He lifted the ocarina anyways though and played along to Malon's song, it took him a few tries to get it right, but he kept at it and eventually managed to play through the whole thing with no mistakes. Somehow, he got the strange feeling that the song he had just learnt would be very important to him someday…

((()))

Impa sat in the back of the wagon; listening to the boy she had been following for a day and a half play his ocarina. It was definitely no coincidence that he had been given an ocarina by his friend Saria; fate intended him to receive the same kind of uncommon instrument as was the sacred instrument of the royal family. This was good because it meant that when Impa taught him the melody later on he would not need to transpose, and when he received the ocarina of time, he would have no need to learn to play a new instrument.

Impa sat and listened to the boy play his forest melody, then Malon's ranch melody on his ocarina. Not only was he skilled in combat, but in the arts as well, it was going to be difficult to find something that this young hero could not do, and that was a good thing because the quest he was going to be sent on would likely test every skill the child could possibly possess. In a way it made Impa sad that such a young child would need to be sent on a journey like the one he had begun. His experiences would affect him for the rest of his life. Emotional wounds were far harder to heal than physical ones and with the amount of death that this child was bound to see, he would likely need every bit of the infamous courage that he most certainly possessed, just to survive. The odds that he would survive without being emotionally scarred were so low she wouldn't even acknowledge the possibility.

Whenever she doubted that what she was doing was right, she just reminded herself what would happen if the boy was allowed to live a normal life. All of Hyrule would certainly suffer under the black cloud of Gannondorf and his Gerudo thieves. It was all a necessary act to save the nation of Hyrule. One boy in exchange for a nation.

But watching this boy, Link, she knew that trading a life for a nation's survival was undoubtedly wrong. He was an innocent young boy, he hadn't signed up for what Impa was assisting in throwing him into. At least if he were a soldier he would have known the risks and accepted them anyways, but as a boy who was unwillingly thrust into a quest, there was nothing right about that…

…still, it was necessary for survival, and that was all that mattered… survive at all costs…

Impa returned from her thoughts as the cart neared the drawbridge. There was a certain window she had to jump out of the cart, too early and she would lose it due to its higher speed, too late and she would be in crowded streets and likely detected when she exited the vehicle. She waited until they were in reasonable traffic, but still outside the area where people were walking on foot. She jumped at the precise moment the cart hit the bump at the end of the drawbridge so the bounce would not be detected within the cart.

Once she was out of the cart she had to run to keep up with the wagon, which was moving at about twelve miles per hour. She was still losing ground but it was still in sight when it stopped. She waited until they started unloading it before ducking into an alleyway and deactivating her invisibility spell. She felt a small amount of her energy return and the depletion caused by the spell ceased.

Once she was visible she mingled with the crowds of people, who were in most cases dressed just as strangely if not odder than herself, she would not be noticed. In any event, she made the best time she could to catch up with the boy. She reached the wagon where they were unloading the milk at a vendor, but he had already left. She looked around in every direction but couldn't see him anywhere in the thick crowds that filled the city square. No matter, she already knew where he was headed, so it was only going to be a matter of time until she found him again. She turned and began jogging in the direction of the castle, not bothering to pull out her identification papers since all the guards already knew her by name.


	6. Sneakin' Around

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 6: Sneakin' around

Link had never seen so many people as were packed within the walls of Hyrule castle. Hordes of people crowded around vendors that charged iniquitous amounts for trinkets which Link saw as having little or no value at all. He could understand the sale of milk as it was a strength building drink, but some of the things he saw the vendors selling were simply pieces of worthless crap.

"Amazing, isn't it, how they built something so huge." Malon stated. She wasn't quite so awestricken by the castle since she could see its white marble walls from her bedroom window every morning, but it was still an amazing thing.

Link stepped out of the wagon and felt the paving stones under his boots, fit together almost seamlessly, with the gaps between them filled in with concrete to make the ground completely level. Link had never seen a path made of stone before, much less walked on one. The closest thing he had ever seen to what he currently walked on were inside the ruins of the forest temple, but they were still inside what were once buildings, and they weren't made perfectly seamless like what he currently stood upon.

Around him, towers of stone stood, filled with people and products, enough people were inside the city that Link wondered how Lon Lon ranch hadn't become a booming business, being one of the few sources of milk and almost definitely the largest.

"About ten thousand people live in this city, we've never had a gallon of milk go unsold, unless it was spilt or victim of some other accident" Malon stated. Link was completely amazed. He thought the number of gallon sized bottles in the cart was impressive, but there was only enough in the cart to be split a gallon per twenty or more people for a whole week.

"Our milk is considered the highest quality, same with the eggs but they aren't a major export of ours, so they are always in high demand, that's why people pay a rupee per egg." Malon explained. Link nodded in understanding, knowing what quality meant to the Kokiri likely was what it meant to the Hylians, better products were worth more money. But now that he was here, looking at the strange and probably worthless items that were being sold on the street, he wondered what determined their price. It was certainly not usefulness or manufacturing cost, the items appeared to be useless and mass produced so manufacturing costs and effectiveness were both negligible, yet the items sold for outrageous prices, Link just didn't get it.

"Hey Malon, could you collect the money from Corbin!" Talon shouted.

"Alright, I'll get it!" Malon replied. "Come by the ranch any time if you get maimed or just want to visit". Malon circled around the side of the merchant booth that the cart was parked at and stopped just before disappearing out of sight, waving to Link and shouting a goodbye before leaving his sight. Link waved as she disappeared around the side of the booth, then turned and began walking in the direction of the inner castle.

Malon had explained how the inner and outer castles worked while they were in the wagon on the way to there. The outer castle was a primary layer of defense to protect the normal people who lived inside castle town. The outer castle could usually defend against a moderate attack, due to the fact that it had a drawbridge which doubled as a door. Any enemy that tried to even reach the walls while the drawbridge was up would drown in the moat. There were cargo nets that hung from the sides of the drawbridge while it was down though so normal people that stumbled into the moat would not drown like enemies would.

The inner castle was for the royal family, nobles, and a permanent home for a fourth of the army. The army of Hyrule totaled about two thousand strong. There were five hundred soldiers inside the inner castle and seven hundred in the outer castle. The other eight hundred were stationed around Hyrule in the various settlements that dotted the country. They tended to have one soldier per forty civilians since that was the average ratio of soldiers to civilians outside of the castle. The inner castle where five hundred soldiers were constantly housed was a secondary layer of protection even stronger than the outer castle. It protected the royal family, the high ranking officials, and those with rather large pocketbooks.

Link knew that the inner castle was the way to go, it was the home of the royal family, and that definitely included the princess. Link felt stupid for not even having found out her name yet, but it was probably considered to be knowledge so common that even a fairy boy who had never even left the forest should have known it, he figured he would find out when he met her, if he could get to her.

He made his way through the crowded streets, trying his best to look natural with the wounded leg. It had healed to the point where he could walk slowly on it without the board, so he left the board in the wagon and used a Deku stick as a staff instead. He was able to go a bit faster using the Deku stick and he also unintentionally gave the impression that he was a traveler by using a walking stick. Still, the way the castle was crowded and the way everyone tried to push their way into the streets, it took him almost an hour to push his way through the crowds just to get a mile to the edge of the market, where a large garden type area separated the city from the inner castle.

Link looked up at the castle in awe. He had seen it from down in the market, but it was an amazing sight to behold so close up. He continued walking along the marked path in the direction of the castle.

Link continued along the path towards the castle for about five minutes until he encountered a gate. The gate was being guarded by a guard who appeared to be slightly out of shape, not as tall and a bit wider than the ones he had occasionally seen down in the market. The guard eyed him skeptically as he approached the gate.

"Halt, beyond this gate is the inner castle, only soldiers, nobles, and royals allowed. No outsiders." The guard stated. Link frowned and looked around the guard to see what was on the other side of the gate. There were a few more guards a ways down the road that didn't seem to be paying any attention, other than that there were no guards within his sight.

"I could make an exception, for the right amount of money. Say… ten rupees?" the guard said, smiling, expecting to be paid. Link knew for a fact that he had forty three rupees in his wallet, which was more than enough to bribe the guard, but he made up his mind that he wasn't going to pay such a disgusting man any amount of money.

"How about you go to hell and let me through the gate." Link said, disgusted by the fat guard who was baring his path, preventing him from following the Deku Tree's dying wish. The guard seemed like he was about to laugh at what the little kid had just said to him, until he saw the sword and shield on his back. The 'little boy' was armed with some very nice weapons.

"Scram kid, even if you paid I couldn't let you past with weapons like those." The guard said, suddenly serious now that weapons had entered the battle. Link snorted at the fraudulent guard but turned and left anyways. Navi, who had been hiding under his hat silently for the duration of his walk through the town, whispered in his ear from under his hat.

"You're just giving up because some slimy piece of garbage won't let you pass?" Navi whispered angrily.

"I'm not giving up, I'm finding another way in, I am not going to degrade myself to the level of paying a man like that" Link stated while walking back in the direction of the market, scanning the man made cliff between the market and castle for any signs of a way over. There were a few trees growing alongside the cliff but one was exceptionally close and narrow enough to climb, but thick enough to easily carry double or event triple his weight. What's more, its thickest branch went straight over the cliff, elevated about seven feet over it.

Link looked over to make sure the tree was out of sight of the guard at the gate. Once he was sure he could climb the tree without being spotted, he began shinnying up the trunk of the tall tree. It took some time to get up since Link hadn't ever climbed the type of tree that he was currently having to scale. After about three minutes of climbing though, he was over the top. He ducked down behind some rose bushes as soon as he was up because he hadn't realized that there was a guard about fifteen feet away.

The guard heard Link drop from the tree and turned to take a look and see if he could spot the source of the disturbance. Link stayed down but he could hear the soldier walking over, and there wasn't very much space to hide if the soldier spotted him.

"Soldier, why are you abandoning your post!" a woman's voice shouted. Link heard the soldier's armor clatter against itself as he jumped to attention.

"My apologies Impa, I saw the tree branch move as if it had just been climbed." The soldier stated apologetically.

"Congratulations, you found out how I avoid that stupid gate keeper, I've been climbing that damned tree right under your nose for four years sergeant, try to keep your eyes open soldier!" Impa shouted in his face. Link didn't know who this Impa person was, but she was obviously covering for him.

Link didn't bother sticking around to say thank you though, he slowly crept in a circle around the garden and over to a drainage ditch, which he ducked down out of sight in. once he was down in the drainage ditch he began looking around for ways to get inside the inner castle.

It didn't take him long to spot the thing he was actually standing upon. A drainage ditch, which was connected at the end to a sewer, and that sewer appeared to go under the castle. There was nothing over the drainage ditch like a grate or something, and that surprised Link, but he went for it anyways.

Link walked inside the sewer, which was tall enough for him to stand in at the end, but rapidly began to narrow as he progressed through it, getting closer to the end. Soon he went around a final corner and saw the light at the end of the tunnel about twenty feet ahead. By this point his shield was scraping against the concrete ceiling and he was on his hands and knees.

"Watch out, you don't want to get stuck in here" Navi warned. Link kept on going regardless and had to crawl on his belly for the last five feet before emerging in a pool of clear water, somewhere inside the castle.

"I think you're in the courtyards, keep moving till you find a door" Navi instructed. Link got up out of the shallow water and stepped out of the pool, onto a well cut lawn. The lawn appeared to extend a long ways through the interior of the castle walls. Link began following the path, looking for a way inside the actual buildings of the inner castle.

"Watch it, watch it!" Navi hissed. Link ducked back as a fully armored guard walked past on a patrol route. The guard stopped for a second and looked around, not seeing Link because he was ducked behind a hedge, the guard kept on moving after a second and Link continued to hold his breath till the soldier was out of sight.

"Too close, keep your eyes open next time." Navi warned. Link nodded silently and then slowly crept back around the edge of the hedges and headed further up the courtyard. The soft leather boots had been designed for making little to no noise when walking on grass, so when he tried he could be silent as a ghost creeping through the courtyards. There hadn't been an attempt to sneak into the castle for years, so all the guards were bored and not paying attention to their duty. It wasn't too difficult to sneak past people who weren't paying any heed to what was going on right under their noses.

It still took a long time to sneak through though, occasionally there would be a guard watching a wide open area and Link would need to send Navi behind them to cause a distraction. And occasionally there would be one he didn't see until he was practically on top of him. Eventually though, he did manage to pass by all the guards, though he still hadn't found a door leading into the castle.

Eventually though, he reached a large open courtyard with flower beds and stone benches, with a large wooden door on the right side adjacent to a stone paved path. Link began crossing the courtyard, watching out for guards, but to his surprise he found no guards, but he did find across the courtyard the girl from his dream, the front rider of the white horse.

She was wearing a dress similar to the one she had worn in his dream, possibly even the same one. Her long blonde hair flowed down her back about half a foot past her shoulders and some of it clung to her shoulder blades, giving the appearance of a golden wreath around her head. Link didn't even really need to disguise the noise or appearance of his approach, she appeared to be preoccupied looking at something through the window at the back of the courtyard…

((()))

Gannondorf hardly felt the anxiety that most men would have felt as he walked down the hall towards the throne room of the king of Hyrule. King Harkinian was quite an imposing figure, not the classic image of a king like the ones from fairy tales. He stood almost seven feet tall and had long black hair and a matching short beard. His robes were of black and red fabric of a high quality, but Gannondorf could see from across the room that those robes hid armor plates and an item which Gannondorf himself considered to be the item most likely to thwart his plans…

The white sword.

It had killed him last time, with the assistance of silver arrows, though those no longer existed, the arrows of light were another possession of the royal family, they had the same physical power of the arrows of light. King Harkinian was a very skilled warrior; he had not gained the throne through inheritance, but as a general in the imprisoning wars 13 years before. A bow sat beside his throne, with a glowing arrow already set on the string, Gannondorf knew it was dangerous to enter the room with a man armed with the weapons it would take to kill him, he had learnt that lesson many years before, but it was too late to turn back from the meeting and the signing of a treaty. Gannondorf needed that treaty signed to have all the pieces in place for his total destruction of Hyrule. There was also the problem of attaining the three spiritual stones, but that could wait until after he ruled Hyrule, perhaps then he would have the power to take the spiritual stones by force. The only problem he could possibly run into was that he now had no idea where one of the spiritual stones was, the spiritual stone of the forest, taken by a Kokiri before he could retrieve it from the dead Deku Tree. But no matter, in time it would be his, along with the other two, everything would happen in time.

"King Harkinian, Lord of Hyrule, Gannondorf Dragmire, Ruler of the Gerudo!" a herald shouted from beside the king's throne… Gannondorf didn't like being addressed after the king of Hyrule like that, as if he were in some way impotent compared to the man who sat upon the throne. He would need to add that herald to the list of men he would kill when he took power, right at the bottom of that list next to that cook that gave him that god-awful steak.

Gannondorf walked forward and kneeled approximately twenty feet away from the end of the king's throne. He was silently observing the guards around the room whether or not they realized it. There were eight guards on either side of the room, for a total of sixteen. There were also four guards around the king's throne, one at each corner, and two doors on either side of the throne, through which more soldiers could likely come if there were some sort of disturbance.

Gannondorf figured that the twenty soldiers in the room probably had additional reinforcements of twenty on standby on the other side of one of the doors and an escape route for the king beyond another. Taking the throne room would definitely be tricky, especially if they caught onto his plan before he got there. He figured for every soldier he killed they would take two of his Gerudo; it would take eighty warriors at least to claim the throne room, unless he himself did it.

"Gannondorf of the Gerudo wishes to have a treaty of arms with the king of Hyrule" The herald stated. Gannondorf smirked to himself as the herald said that, he had no idea what was coming. He felt something strange though, as he was kneeling before the king of Hyrule, he felt as if someone uninvited was watching him; he tried to augment his senses with his magic and eventually located the source of his strange feeling to be the window to his right. He turned his head ever so slightly to the right and peeked at the window. He saw the princess, as he had expected, he knew she was far more intelligent than her father and could see things that he could not. She saw right through his plan, one of his Gerudo warriors even overheard her warning her father of his plan, but her father had foolishly not listened to her.

But there was someone else at the window, someone he had not expected. He didn't see much of the other person because he ducked away from the window so fast. But Gannondorf could swear he saw the boy duck away from the window wearing a green hat and tunic. Was it possible that…

Gannondorf dismissed the idea, but only for a moment, he remembered what he had found out when he got the detailed report from Sashi. The Kokiri boy who had taken the spiritual stone of the forest was headed for Hyrule castle, and the Sheikah following him was Impa, the body guard of princess Zelda. Perhaps there was more to this than he was seeing, more to the situation he found himself in than had before met the eye. There was definitely something strange about the boy no matter what, whether or not he carried the spiritual stone...

… There was something strange about that boy…

((()))

Link walked forward, stopping at the foot of the steps leading to the platform the princess stood upon. Link licked his dry, cracked lips, and then spoke.

"Uh… hello?" Link said. It took a moment for the fact that she was being addressed to be processed, but when it did Zelda spun around, not recognizing the voice. For a moment Link thought she was going to scream and then he was going to be busted by about a hundred guards at once. But it didn't happen, she opened her mouth to scream but something stopped her, something flying in circles around Link's head. Zelda just stared at it for a few awkward moments, then finally replied.

"Is that a fairy… who are you!" Zelda exclaimed. Link wondered how to reply to the princess's question. Even if he answered with his name, she would have no idea who he was; odds are she had never heard of a boy named Link.

"I'm Navi, and this is Link, we are from the forest" Navi replied to the question. Zelda suddenly went from surprised and slightly afraid to being forward and sociable in a heartbeat. All of a sudden she was asking questions like crazy and Link had trouble keeping up with them all.

"So, you wouldn't happen to have the spiritual stone of the forest, would you?" Zelda asked. Link wondered for a second whether or not he should tell her that he had the spiritual stone. He decided to tell the truth after a few seconds of though, deciding that she was the person the Deku Tree told him to find and the Deku tree always knew the best answer to everything. He produced the spiritual stone of the forest from the pouch at his side and held it out for her to see.

Zelda gazed at the spiritual stone for a second, mesmerized by its beauty. Then she reached out and tried to touch the glowing green emerald of the Deku Tree. She got close but before her fingers could close around it, a flash of light emanated from it and she jolted back, shocked by some sort of electrical current.

"They can only have one master, and right now it is you" Zelda said while reaching out and closing Link's hand back around the stone he had just produced. Link put it back in his pouch among the rest of his equipment.

"I had a dream…" Zelda began; Link turned his attention back to her as she began her story. "In my dream, dark storm clouds were billowing over Hyrule. Me and my attendant, Impa, were riding away from the castle on a white horse. The drawbridge was broken and we had to jump it. We were being chased by a black horse, with eyes that glowed red like coals, but I could not see the rider."

"You jumped out of the way of our horse as we rode past, then the black horse stopped in front of you, but you pulled out the spiritual stone of the forest and stunned the horse with a beam of light, a light as green as the forests of Hyrule." Zelda explained. Link listened intently for the entire short story she told him about her dream; it was very similar to his own dream with a few minor variations, definitely of the same origin.

"I have been having a similar dream, from my perspective of that scene you just described." Link stated. Zelda looked over Link and Navi and then closed her eyes for a moment, thinking through the scene she had seen in her dream.

"I was looking through this window just now, I want you to look, and tell me if that man in there looks familiar" Zelda showed Link the window into the throne room and gestured for him to look through it, he stepped up to the glass and put two hands against the glass to create shade that allowed him to see through the glare on the window.

He saw the man. Time slowed down, he heard a high pitched ringing in his ears and the edges of his vision began to darken, turning slowly into tunnel vision. Link felt his hand drifting towards the handle of his sword but managed to restrain himself from drawing the weapon, which would be a bad thing if one of the guards in the throne room saw him that close to the princess with a weapon, but it appeared they were all focused on the interior of the room.

The man, who knelt before the king of Hyrule, was the evil man of the desert, the man from his dream, the man who had killed the great Deku Tree… The man Link wanted to behead right then and there. He wished that the glass and the guards weren't there, that it was just him and the unarmed Gerudo king. He would kill him; stab him enough times to kill him twice, just for good measure.

"Do you see the man with the evil eyes…" Zelda asked. Link saw him alright, his last quarter second of undivided attention had been given to that man. Link felt the urge to draw his sword again, as he looked at the right eye of the Gerudo king, the only evil red eye he could see from his position. He wanted to put his blade through that eye and watch that monster squirm, then he could go home and try to make things right with the rest of the Kokiri.

That was the other aspect of his want to kill the monster he now saw less than twenty feet away. The man had ruined his life. No doubt Mido and the know it all brothers were spreading around terrible rumors about what he had done, and no doubt there would be a few Kokiri that would believe them. It was possible that the only friend Link would have when he returned would be Saria. She was the only friend who had never abandoned him in any way, if he needed her; she was there to help him, every single time, without fail.

And that Gerudo thief damn near ruined that too.

"That is Gannondorf, king of the Gerudo; they hail from the desert, far to the west." Zelda explained. "He says he pledges allegiance to my father, the king, but I know he is not sincere, I can see his evil intentions" Zelda continued. Link agreed with her on that, he had to look at that man for but a millisecond to see through any sort of weak lie the thieving monster had created. He could see in those evil eyes the fire he wished to use to end the world of Hyrule, and to make it his once and for all. He would not stop until every Hylian, Goron, Zora, and Kokiri had submitted to his will… or died.

"What does he want from Hyrule?" Link asked. Zelda closed her eyes, deep in thought, she herself was not absolutely sure of what he wanted, but she had a pretty good idea of what he wanted, she couldn't see any other motivation besides the idea of him just wanting a war for the thrill of it, which wasn't so far fetched for a man like him either.

"He wants the Triforce, the embodiment of the power, wisdom, and courage of the gods." Zelda started. Link's heart stopped, Gannondorf's head turned ever so slightly in his direction, his eyes darted to the window for a split second. Link jumped away from the window and out of the line of sight, but he was pretty sure that Gannondorf had seen him before he made the move away from the looking glass. Now that Gannondorf had seen him things would be a whole lot more complicated. Link just had to be ready for whatever happened.

"Did he see you?" Zelda asked. Link wasn't sure if he had been seen, just because Gannondorf had looked at him didn't mean it was a good enough look for him to be recognized. Link nodded a yes just to be safe.

"Don't worry; he doesn't know what we are planning, yet!" Zelda stated excitedly, making sure that she too was out of sight of the Gerudo king on the other side of the wall in the throne room.

"Did you warn anyone, about what he is up to?" Link asked.

"Yes, I told my father about my dream, but he believed it was just a nightmare, not a prophesy. I know that man is evil though, he has such terrifying powers." Zelda said, she shivered as a chill crept across her shoulders, likely brought on by the terrifying thoughts she was having about just how far the power of Gannondorf might go.

"To access the Triforce, you need the three spiritual stones and the ocarina of time. We can't waste any time getting the stones before he does. I have the ocarina and you already have one of the stones, which means that there are two more stones for you to get. Impa knows more about the spiritual stones than I do, she'll get you filled in on those. She also will probably teach you the messenger's song; people will let you into places they normally wouldn't let you go if you know it." Zelda explained. Link heard a rush of wind behind him and turned to see the other woman who had also been riding the white horse in the dream appear behind him. A flurry of leaves which had a moment before encircled her vanished and she stood there waiting for Link to approach.

"I have been following you since yesterday morning" Impa stated the fact blandly as if it were not creepy at all.

"oo-kay" Link said slowly, trying to express the fact that he found being followed like that to be creepy, but apparently Impa didn't see it that way because she didn't seem to even consider for a moment apologizing for the injustice she had done him.

"Everything the princess has told you is true; my small part to play is to assist you in finding your destinations and to teach you this melody, which I have used as a melody for the princess since her earliest days. There is certainly a strange power in the notes you have learnt thus far and there is even greater power in the ones you learn now." Impa explained. Link began digging in his pouch for his ocarina while Impa began whistling a short melody through her fingertips. Link could hear the melody almost seem to liven the world around him, make everything brighter, more pronounced, stronger.

He found his ocarina and lifted it to his lips, quickly playing the short song he had just been taught, for some reason he was able to play memories he heard well, but was terrible at ones he read off of parchment.

"Very good. You may want to come with me now, I am going to show you the armory, and if the castle soldiers found you there alone there would be quite the large commotion, please come with me."


	7. A Night on the City

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 7: A Night on the City

Link stood in the doorway of the armory, his mouth gaping at the sight of the vast assortment of weapons, all available for his use. The room was about twenty feet across and square in shape, with four aisles separated by weapon racks. The weapons furthest to the right were the longest range, bows and javelins, the weapons closer to the middle were short range, and then the left side of the room was dominated by stacks and stacks of shields, each weapon and shield was carefully labeled for what type, size, and storage location it was assigned. Impa walked immediately over to the shields and grabbed a small size shield, similar to Link's Deku shield but just slightly larger and made from steel rather than wood.

"Your shield is damaged; you may want to replace it with this." Impa said while handing Link the shield, Link tried it on his arm and found it to fit a bit loose, it also was a bit on the heavy side, but it was usable, though not quite as maneuverable as the Deku shield.

"Do you have any lighter or smaller?" Link asked, testing the weight of his new shield.

"That is the smallest size; you can tighten the straps like you would tighten a belt buckle. There is nothing I can do about the weight but while you are wearing it on your back it should not be a problem." Impa replied. Link nodded and put the shield on his back in place of the Deku shield, which he tucked into the limitless pouch at his side.

Once he had figured out the best way to use his shield, Link walked over to the swords, he went from aisle to aisle trying to find a sword that worked for him. The broadswords were far too heavy and long for him to wield yet. The short swords were bearable to swing but they were also too heavy for him. The daggers were the closest thing to something he could effectively use. They had a long enough blade and didn't weigh too much but they were only sharpened on one side, like a knife, not very good for use as a primary weapon. Link decided his own weapon was better than anything available in the armory and kept it.

Finally he moved down to the spears and items such as he did not have yet. The only one of those that really interested him was the bow and arrow, but even the lightest one was much too strong for him to use, he could only pull the string back a few inches before it began to cut into his fingers. So all he really had that was new was a better shield than the one he had before, and that was plenty for him because it was already far more than he had previously expected to get out of the little venture.

"That's all you're taking?" Impa asked incredulously. Link took one more look around the armory and then made up his mind.

"Yeah, this is plenty." Link replied. He adjusted his bandolier-style belt to accommodate for the increased weight of his shield over his shoulder.

"Are you sure, is there anything else you need?" Impa asked. Just as she asked the question, Link's stomach growled loudly, he tried to think about just how much he had eaten since the previous morning, one small loaf of bread and no water. Once he began focusing on the fact that he had no food or water for the last day and a half, he began to realize just how hungry and thirsty he was.

"Come with me, I know a place"…

((()))

Gannondorf sat at the desk in his borrowed room within the inner castle. His plan was falling apart quickly. At the very least, Zelda and Impa were onto his plans along with the unknown Kokiri boy and his stupid fairy. He was sure of it now because his Gerudo warriors had personally seen Impa show the boy into the armory and give him a new shield to replace his wooden one. That was bad news because he knew exactly where the other two Triforce pieces were going to go when he attained the Triforce of power, right to the people who already knew his plans, Zelda and that meddling forest boy.

He stood swiftly, almost knocking his chair over as an idea came to him, a most terrible and excellently evil plan for how he would attain all three spiritual stones without so much as lifting a finger. He walked over to the door of his room and stepped outside where two of his Gerudo guards were waiting, one on either side of the door.

"Soldier, bring forth Apprentice Sophia Thebes. Quickly!" Gannondorf ordered the soldier to the right of the door. He had intentionally memorized her name and rank for a different mission, but this was far more important.

The guard nodded and Gannondorf retreated back into his chambers, formulating his plans deeper than he had previously, planning out every single detail of his new strategy to use against the Hylians. He sat there for several minutes in deep thought, before there was a knock at the door.

"Come in, apprentice." Gannondorf addressed. The door opened and Sophia walked in, already in full combat garb with a scimitar hanging from each hip and a dagger strapped under her left arm.

"You have surely heard about the visitor who snuck into the castle earlier today and met with the princess" Gannondorf stated. Sophia nodded, not sure yet what it had to do with her. Gannondorf stood and leaned against the side of the desk which had come with the room.

"Yes, I have, but I don't see what that has to do with my current…" Sophia started. Gannondorf cut off her statement with a slicing movement of his hand. She stopped talking immediately and Gannondorf began addressing her again.

"Your current assignment is changed. You are now to follow this intruder wherever he goes" Gannondorf ordered. Sophia was shocked and afraid at the same time that Gannondorf wanted her to do this assignment. It was easily one of the most dangerous assignments he could have chosen to give her in any event.

"Wha…wha…why?" Sophia asked. Gannondorf grinned at his own cleverness as she asked this question. He picked up a sheet of parchment off the desk to demonstrate his theory.

"Pretend that this sheet of paper represents a magical aura of a full grown Gerudo, such as your master, Sashi. Is it not a simple task to detect her aura?" Gannondorf asked. Sophia nodded to show that Gannondorf was right. He took the sheet of parchment and tore off the corner of it, a piece about the size of a thumbnail.

"Your aura is like this, smaller and harder to detect, do to your current lack of training in the more powerful spells." Gannondorf explained. Sophia now understood why she had been selected for the assignment; there were no other Gerudo in the building that were apprentices, she was the only warrior available to Gannondorf with such a small magical aura.

"So, what am I supposed to do?" Sophia asked. Gannondorf grinned once again at his own cleverness. He sat back down at the desk and tilted his chair backwards partway.

"You are supposed to follow him, as he gathers the other two spiritual stones. Once he has claimed the spiritual stone of fire and the spiritual stone of water, you are to kill him, and take the sacred items from his corpse. If we cannot gather the stones from their current owners, than we will gather them when they have all been gathered into one spot. I believe the term is easy pickings." Gannondorf laughed. Sophia also recognized the genius of the plan, a way to claim the spiritual stones without needing to gather them, let the would-be hero do the work. While he gathered the stones he would really be simply picking them up for Gannondorf himself.

"You really are brilliant" Sophia commented as Gannondorf admired his own plan for victory. Gannondorf laughed evilly as he heard this, in a very short time, the world of Hyrule would be his…

((()))

"So, what is this?" Link asked, poking the steaming mass of vegetables on his plate with his fork. He had seen beans and carrots before but there were a few things he didn't recognize. He knew not to eat things like berries that he didn't recognize and he believed the same probably applied to everything he didn't recognize on his plate.

"Those are string beans, cubed radishes, carrots, and corn." Impa said while pointing at each individual vegetable as she said its name. Link looked them over, still slightly suspicious of them, he took a sip of the ice water, something he had never had before, and continued to stare, as if waiting for them to explode.

"Don't worry, they're edible" Navi said, to demonstrate she floated down to the plate and took a piece of corn, which was big enough to her to be a good sized meal. She took a bite out of it and a small corner of it disappeared. Link, satisfied that the food was safe, took one of the cubes of radish with his fork and ate it, chewing several times before swallowing. Link thought it was slightly bitter in taste and a bit juicy, but he liked it, he had never tasted anything like it before and in less than a minute the plate was clear of radishes and corn, the beans and carrots still untouched.

Link ate the beans and the carrots as well, but they were bland and not nearly as exciting as the other foods. Once he had finished them he took another long drink of the ice water, which was far better than any water he had ever drank in the village.

"So, was it good?" Impa asked as Link finished the meal.

"It was great" Link replied.

"Excellent." Navi agreed while eating the seed out of the center of the kernel she had taken from Link's plate. Link picked up the glass again and looked at it. The water was being cooled by small chunks of ice inside the glass with the water, the closest thing he had ever had to it was cold water during the winter, but he had never considered breaking up ice and putting it in the glass to keep it colder for longer. The water also seemed to have a different taste than the water in the forest; it tasted cleaner and had a sort of soft texture inside his mouth.

"That water is from the Zora River" Impa explained. "And the ice is from the top of Death Mountain, it is transported down on insulated carts, and in special rooms it can last for months." Impa explained. Link thought about what kind of room could possibly hold ice for that long. There would need to be some sort of major insulation to keep ice cold that long in a temperate area like Hyrule castle. Link wondered how long the ice that was in his drink right now had been around on the top of the mountain. A month, a year, two, a century, millennia, since the beginning of time. It was impossible to tell how old ice was.

"Do they ever run out of ice, on the mountain?" Link asked. Impa grinned at the idea as if it were entirely outlandish.

"That mountain is huge. Right now there is enough clean ice on the mountain to supply a million men for a million years, and the rate at which it reforms is far faster than the speed at which we take it." Impa continued. Link figured that it was a crazy estimate that there was that much ice and snow on the mountain, but then he looked up at the mountain, barely visible over the buildings and castle wall, gleaming in the late afternoon light. The mountain was huge, and its summit was covered in layer upon layer of solid ice, waiting to be put in a drink like his. Was it so preposterous to say that it could last so long?

"The next spiritual stone is there, under that mountain, in the Goron village. You won't need to go all the way up the mountain, just about half way to the entrance to their city, it won't get too chilly half way up. It's too late for you to leave tonight though so we're going to have to find you an Inn" Impa said while getting to her feet, leaving two blue rupees on the table for the bill and two greens as a tip. The waitress who had brought the food stepped forward and collected the dishes and the money and thanked them for deciding to eat at their restaurant.

Impa led the way through the crowded streets with ease, moving past the throng of people without breaking stride, Link had not dealt with large mobs of people before so he had much more trouble navigating the streets, but Impa seemed to keep her speed down, allowing him to keep up reasonably well. Still it took almost ten minutes to go two blocks to the Inn Impa was referring to. The Inn was a tall wooden building, four floors high, sandwiched between two larger buildings. Across the street from it was a massive stone building with stained glass windows and marble construction. A tall tower stood over a hundred feet high from the front and an identical one stood from the back.

"What is that" Link asked, awestruck by the size of the cathedral like structure. Impa turned to look and see what he was looking at.

"That is the temple of time" Impa stated plainly, Link already knew the rest. Zelda had explained it to him inside the inner castle courtyards.

"Come on inside, I'll buy the room since the army has so graciously given me…" Impa pulled a purple rupee out of the wallet hanging at her side. "… An unlimited budget".

Impa led Link into the Inn and walked up to the counter, where a stocky old man wearing spectacles with a short cut beard sat behind the high counter. The counter was so high that Link couldn't see what was on it and Impa herself barely could. Link didn't understand why the counter had to be so high, it would be far more efficient from a construction and a physical standpoint to have it at the same level as the lobby, but apparently it meant something about status, some sort of social symbol of power. Much like the needlessly tall towers of Hyrule castle, they didn't need to be so high but they were a symbol of power for King Harkinian.

"Good evening, will the two of you be having a room?" The innkeeper asked, his fingers drumming on the oak counter, likely on papers of business that Link could not see.

"No, just the boy, I stay in the castle but they failed to prepare his room, so he needs to stay in this inn or another in town." Impa explained. Link knew that this falsified story had something to do with whatever deal she was trying to achieve, so he didn't correct her on the lie she had stated so smoothly.

"Oh, them castle folk are always dicking around like a bunch of pansies, sometimes I think they just run some insane asylum up there, and the king is the most retarded one of them all!" The innkeeper pronounced loudly, laughing soon afterwards. Link smelled something strange on the man's breath, but he couldn't tell what it was. The man lifted a large bottle and took a swig of it before belching loudly. Several heads turned to the sound and tried to discern what exactly was going on at the front of the room.

"Well, do to the nature of your rejection from the castle, I think I can deal ya in for twenty rupees" The innkeeper said. Impa put the purple rupee she had been holding in her hand back and pulled out a red one, which she handed freely to the innkeeper. The innkeeper took the rupee and put it in a lock box under the counter before pulling a key from the rack behind him and leaning over the front of the desk. Link sidestepped a slosh of the strange smelling liquid from the bottle as the innkeeper spilled some while leaning over the desk to hand him the room key.

Link caught the key as the innkeeper daintily dropped it from atop his desk. Then Impa led him upstairs towards the room, 203. The two stood for the floor and the oh-three stood for the room on that floor. Link followed Impa up to the second floor, waiting till they were in the stairway to speak.

"What was wrong with that man, he seemed a little… strange, and his breath smelled funny" Link said as he followed Impa up the stairs.

"He was drunk. That drink had a lot of alcohol in it" Impa explained. Link didn't know what alcohol was, but so far as he could tell, it made people clumsy, awkward, and smelly, why would anyone want to drink something like that. Link stated his thought and Impa just laughed.

"Don't ask me, I don't drink it" Impa joked as she stepped out of the stairway; the second room on the right was Link's. He opened the door to the room and stepped inside, finding it already lit by a lantern hanging from the ceiling. Navi flew out from under Link's hat and took in the new surroundings. The room was about fifteen feet across and square, with an adjoining bathroom and a small closet. The carpet of the floor was once a pure white color but had faded to a light yellow over a time of about eighty years that it had been in use. Occasionally there would be a small stain on the floor but all the large ones had been quickly dealt with when they occurred. The bed actually appeared to be reasonably recently made, probably a replacement for the old one, as well as most of the furniture in the room. The only real problem Link had with the room was a section of torn paneling so thin he could practically hear everything in the next room, which just so happened to be an arguing couple.

"Do you like the room, or should I get another?" Impa asked.

"Oh, it's great, it's perfect." Link said excitedly. He walked around the room, inspecting every nook and cranny finally after a few seconds he looked up to say thank you, but Impa was gone. She may have known the good restaurant and Inn, but no matter what she was still creepy…

((()))

Sophia Thebes walked down the street outside of the hotel, pausing for only a minute to look through the window of the room the Kokiri boy had bought. The Kokiri had been accompanied this far by the Sheikah bodyguard, Impa, but from what she had gathered he wouldn't be followed much longer, possibly not even as far as outside of the outer castle. That was good news for her, the Sheikah would be able to detect her, and the boy likely would not.

Sophia's appearance had changed drastically in the forty minutes since she had received her assignment. Her hair and skin color had been changed to those of a Hylian, brown hair and white skin, and she now wore a black tunic under a brown robe with a concealed dagger under her left arm. The thing that she thought was strangest to her of all these changes was her hair, hanging halfway down her back instead of in a pony tail, she didn't get why anyone would want to let their hair get in the way like that, but it didn't matter, so long as it made her look more Hylian.

It was well past sunset, probably ten or eleven o'clock at night, she couldn't tell exactly since there was no visible way to tell time from her position, the moon would be a fair way to tell but it was obscured by of all things, the temple of time. Fact was, it was getting late and the night-dwellers of the castle were beginning to come out from their various places. It wasn't the prospect of being attacked by them that worried her, it was the idea of what would happen after she killed the attacker, she didn't want to attract attention to herself but a killing for whatever reason would do exactly that.

She pulled the hood of her cloak over her head to hide from the many lowlifes that had begun to scatter across the streets. If she still had the appearance of a Gerudo warrior they wouldn't mess with her, but she unfortunately couldn't follow Link as the enemy, so she had to be disguised as a Hylian, and it came with those drawbacks. Even with the hood hiding her face, it didn't take long for her to be noticed.

"What is that girly doing out this late?" she heard someone whisper behind her, about 20 feet distant. If she hadn't been listening for things like that she wouldn't have heard it at all, but she had been listening.

"Does it matter?" Another man asked.

"No" the first replied.

"What if she is armed?"

"That's why there are two of us, don't worry, if you get wounded I'll let you have her first"

"It isn't getting wounded that I'm worried about, it's getting killed"

"How about this, I hit her first, back of the head with the pipe, that way, you don't need to worry about it"

"Are you sure that's even a girl, look at the boots"

"Look at the way she walks, if it's a guy we can just take his wallet and call it a night, if it's a girly we take the whole package."

"Let's do it"

Sophia heard the pace of the two men quicken, and a sound of metal singing over fabric as one of them drew a metal pipe out of a satchel, she focused carefully on the quiet footsteps and the sounds of their approach, waiting for the perfect moment to take them both out.

Once they were practically on her, she spun around, flinging her cloak into one man's face and punching the other in the gut; she didn't even need to draw her dagger. The man who she had blinded with her cloak cleared his field of vision and tried to fight back to no avail. Three punches in rapid succession were plenty to put him down, the first one broke his nose, the second slammed into his gut, doubling him over, the third was an uppercut that smashed his jaw and sent him flipping backwards to the flagstones. Sophia heard the noise behind her a bit too late and a pipe slammed into the back of her neck. She heard something important crack but not break entirely. She kicked backwards and caught the pipe-wielder in the groin with the full force of her anger. The second attacker fell ten feet from the first and tried to get up. Sophia wouldn't let him get up, she picked up the pipe he had tried to use against her and whacked him across the face with a blow that easily would break bones, Sophia couldn't tell if he was severely injured or not but he definitely wouldn't be attacking her again.

"Next time, don't whisper so loud" Sophia said before giving him a parting kick in the ribs. She threw the pipe across the street and into a gutter before retrieving her cloak and continuing down the street, walking in the direction of the nearest Inn, she felt an ache in her neck from where the pipe had hit her, she didn't need a fight like that again.

She picked an inn with a room that had a clear line of sight to the one the Kokiri boy had chosen. She saw the other street-rats eying her, giving her funny looks, all of them had probably seen how she had handled the two previous attackers and none of them wanted to suffer the same fate. She continued all the way to the inn with no problems. She quickly bought her room and made sure she got the correct one, the one with the good view down the street to the other building where the Kokiri was staying. And then she lay down to get a few hours of sleep at best, she would wake up long before the person she was following. And the next day, there would be a mountain to climb…

((()))

"So, what's with those funny clothes you're wearing?" a man wearing black with a bow slung over his shoulder asked Link. The bar attached to the lobby of the Inn was technically supposed to be closed, but a few of the regulars were still there as well as the bartender and a few strangers, at the moment they were all clustered around Link, who was by far the most interesting character they had ever seen there in a while. Technically he was not even supposed to be in the bar, but technically the Inn was doing a whole lot of things wrong.

"This is what we wear in the forest, everyone wears green because it is such an easy dye to find and it works great as camouflage" Link explained. The man who had asked the question appeared to be some sort of hunter and understood the importance of camouflage.

"So, why ain't none of us Hylians ever been to that village of yours?" the bartender asked.

"Because you all get lost in the woods when you try, you become a stalfos when you wander too deep in the lost woods." Link explained. The bartender nodded, accepting this as the reasoning behind why the Kokiri had never been found.

"So, if you are a Kokiri, where is your fairy?" another man with a long beard and a sword asked. In response, the front of Link's hat rose up and Navi fluttered out from beneath it. The people gathered around the table gasped as Navi glowed a deep shade of blue.

"never seen a blue one before, heck, only time I ever seen a red one was at the bazaar down the street, they got all sorts of crazy stuff down there" The innkeeper slurred, his condition had degraded far more over the last hour or so and he was practically falling over, Link himself had only drank half a bottle of what they called ale, and then he only liked it because it was cold and cold drinks were uncommon in the village. He didn't like the taste at all and after it began to warm up he asked for ice water instead.

"Red fairies, humph. They're so stupid, all they can do is healing magic and then they just disappear; they are hardly worth even being called fairies." Navi snorted, the people around the table laughed, more because they never met a fairy that could talk than because they thought what she said was funny.

"So are you a boy or a girl?" one of the men asked. Navi thought it was a stupid question, but realized that since they had never before met a fairy and all they could see was her aura, it was quite possible that they couldn't tell the difference just from her voice, she certainly couldn't tell the difference until she heard the other fairy speak.

"It doesn't really matter since we do not reproduce the way mortals do, but I am a girl, yes." Navi replied. It took some of the men who didn't understand very much about magic a few seconds to understand that it was physically possible for a living being to be created through magic. A few of them couldn't even understand the logic of it at all, not getting how life could be made with no physical father or mother.

"So, no sex?" the barkeep half asked, half serious and half joking when he asked the question. Most of the people around the table laughed but the hunter seemed to take the start of an inappropriate topic very seriously. Before he could stop them though smaller conversations began to spring up, mainly revolving around drunken people having sex.

"I remember a while ago, I used to have sex at my mom's house while she wasn't around" one drunk stated.

"Didn't you get lonely there all by yourself" another man laughed. At this most of the bar began to laugh uproariously. Finally the hunter took things into his own hands.

"Hey, children present" the hunter looking man shouted. Everyone stopped and stared at him for a few seconds, before the barkeeper finally had the nerve to speak.

"We let them drink, why not let them laugh?" the barkeep asked, but the hunter would have none of it. There was an awkward stare-off between the two for a few seconds before the barkeep looked away, and the issue was resolved.

"Oh well, you're probably right… what time is it?" the barkeep asked. The drunken innkeeper staggered over to the window and looked outside at the twin sun and moon dials in the center of the plaza.

"Coming up on midnight dude" the drunken innkeeper laughed while throwing his bottle out the window, Link heard it break on the ground outside and the barkeep cringed, likely wondering when the Hylian guard was going to burst in and demand he close for the night, likely issuing him a fine in the process. However, no soldiers entered the building and after a few minutes the barkeep seemed to be relaxed, no longer worrying about the possibility.

"It is getting pretty late, wifey is gonna get angry." The barkeep laughed while getting to his feet. The rest of the people in the bar got up and started to leave. Link also got to his feet to leave but the hunter clamped down a hand on his shoulder.

"You're lying" the hunter stated plainly. Link wondered what the hunter meant by that statement but as he sat back down the hunter quickly elaborated on it.

"You're lying about why you are here, in Hyrule. Nobody has supposedly ever left your village before, yet you expect us to believe that you are here armed with a sword and shield because you were curious about what was outside of the forest." The hunter continued.

"I seriously don't know what you're talking about" Link replied, but he knew it was such an obvious lie.

"That is such an obvious lie. I saw who brought you to this inn; you came here with a Sheikah warrior, the personal body guard of the princess herself. You're here, and it's not for a vacation" the hunter said.

"You're right, but I can't tell you or anyone else the details, so I'm gonna have to say good night." Link said while getting to his feet. The hunter got up as well but it didn't seem that he had any further questions.

"I will be watching out for you, there is something odd about you Link" the hunter said as he and Link walked out of the bar and into the lobby of the adjoining hotel. The hunter sat down on one of the chairs and began polishing a fine wooden bow, the one he had been wearing over his shoulder. Link eyed the bow and a quiver of a dozen arrows slung over the hunter's shoulder for a moment before continuing up the stairs to his room. There was something odd about the hunter, and the thing that annoyed Link was that he didn't have time to figure it out.


	8. Lasting Impressions

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 8: Lasting Impressions

Link awoke at 6, the sound of a cuckoo crowing was louder now than it was in the forest, though not by very much. He slowly got to his feet and looked around. The room was musty and light filtered in between the blinds on the window, illuminating the dust in the air and making trails of light across the room. Navi flew into the air from her position laying atop Link's hat on the nightstand.

Link picked up his hat once Navi was clear of it and then put it on his head, proceeding to walk to the front of the room where he put on his boots. Navi flew under his hat before he walked out the door to the room and into the hall. From the hall he went to the stairway, and then from the stairway to the lobby. The Innkeeper was in the lobby and his face was pale as if he were sick with some sort of bad illness.

"What's wrong with him?" Link asked.

"Hangover, don't ask what that is" Navi replied. Link decided not to ask, fearing the answer would be something he didn't exactly want to hear. He put the key on the Innkeeper's desk, which he had to reach up to do, then walked outside.

At six in the morning the streets were not as crowded as they had been in the afternoon, though still packed with people. Link found that it was becoming easier to move through the city though, no matter how packed it was, the more he did it the less difficult it became. Link made his way through the crowded streets till he reached the drawbridge, which was already down to accept the morning traffic. When he got there, four wagons covered wagons were pulling in, three of them were severely damaged to the point where they had possibly made their last voyage, and the fourth was going to need some serious repair. Each wagon was loaded with four men and one driver, as well as a few unmarked crates. The four men on the back of each wagon were armed with bows and broadswords, several of them were almost out of arrows though.

"What the hell happened?" a soldier at the front gate asked as the wagons pulled in. Closer up, Link could tell that all the soldiers were wearing the same garb as the castle soldiers under leather tunics.

"Bandits, the bastards get more creative every time we pass through. They grew a patch of bomb flowers in the middle of the road and blew up our lead wagon; all five of our guys were killed instantly. We managed to fight them off though" the soldier who appeared to be the leader said while jumping down from the wagon. The guard at the gate looked over the severely damaged wagons for a moment before turning back to the leader.

"Where the hell did they find the bomb flowers?" the guard asked. The leader frowned for a moment and then in reply reached over the front of the wagon and pulled out a dead body clothed entirely in black, pierced by four arrows.

"Ask him" the leader said while dumping the body at the feet of the guard. The guard gulped and took a step back. The leader got back on the wagon and the wagon headed up in the direction of the inner castle.

Link turned back towards the road and kept on going walking across the drawbridge and out of the castle. Outside of the castle it was already warm and the temperature was rising steadily. Link turned to his left and saw Death Mountain, the place Impa had been referring to, it didn't disappoint. A ring of smoke circled the top of the mountain and the top of it was covered in powdery white snow. Link could see a blizzard on the far side of the mountain and about halfway up it he saw a faint twinkling light, something bright enough to be seen from that distance.

"Well, that's the mountain… are you ready for this?" Navi asked. Link stood there, looking at the mountain towering thousands of feet above the rocky terrain of east Hyrule. It would likely be half a days journey just to get to Kakariko village at the foot of the mountain, getting half way up the mountain to the Goron village would likely take the entire day. Checking his rations Link found that he only had one loaf of bread and no water. He didn't want to navigate his way through the crowds again though so his only option was to get water in Kakariko.

"Hell no, but I'm doing it anyways" Link replied. And with that he began walking in the direction of Kakariko village, and the mountain of fire.

((()))

Sophia hoped to the goddesses that she could pull off what she was about to try, it was the kind of thing that they taught you that you would never actually need to use. But now she needed to use it so she could get to Kakariko without walking ten miles and alerting the Kokiri boy to the fact that she was following him, very few people walked across the field and she wasn't going to be outrunning a Kokiri child, they played hide and seek and tag their entire lives, the only times the Gerudo ran were when they were trying to cross the desert without getting burnt. So Sophia walked up to the cart parked at the castle gate, its destination marker reading Kakariko, then she walked over to the driver, a big construction worker loading a bunch of 4x4 poles into the back of the wagon.

"Excuse me, sir?" Sophia asked. The man didn't seem to notice, believing she was talking to someone else or not hearing her, whatever the case, she asked again.

"Sir?" the construction worker turned around, picking a splinter out of his hand as he did.

"Is this wagon heading to Kakariko?" Sophia asked.

"Yeah, what, are you the new port master or something, kid?" the carpenter asked. Sophia held her ground, not phased by the insult to her age.

"Actually I need to get to Kakariko village by mid-afternoon and I was wondering if you would give me a ride." Sophia asked. The carpenter's eyes narrowed, moments before he had seen a wagon train come in completely decimated by bandits, and now a young girl in a black tunic with a knife strapped to her side was asking to be let into his wagon. He looked closer at the knife; it was a straight knife only bladed on one end, rigged to be drawn in a defensive position, not an offensive weapon. He knew this from the time he had spent in the Hylian Guard; this person wasn't, in his opinion, a threat.

"Alright, climb aboard missy; we pull out in three minutes." The carpenter said while putting another wooden board in the bed of the wagon. Sophia smiled as she walked around the back of the wagon and jumped into the bed. There were two stacks of boards on either side of the wagon, forming bench style rows against both sides. Sophia took off her pack and put it on the bench next to her, then she pulled out her knife and used the tip to scrape some dirt out from under her fingernails. She put away the knife just as the carpenter climbed onto the front of the wagon.

"alright, we're moving" the carpenter said as the wagon lurched forward, being pulled by two strong horses, it didn't seem like it, but there were easily two tons of wood in the wagon. Sophia watched the horses strain against their harnesses to pull the wagon along the paved streets of the castle, eventually setting into a rhythmic speed that was good for them and fine with the carpenter. Once the wagon was no longer accelerating and was moving at a moderate clip along the hard-packed dirt roads, Sophia spun sideways so she was laying down on the row of planks using her pack as a pillow, it definitely wasn't the least comfortable bed she had ever slept in. she closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest so her exposed forearms wouldn't get splinters from the makeshift bench/bed. She slowly closed her eyes, and began to drift off to sleep, exhausted since she had only gotten four hours of sleep the previous night.

Her eyes couldn't have been closed for five minutes when she felt the wagon begin to slow down. She looked up to the front and saw the carpenter driving the horses giving them a signal to slow down. She wondered what that was all about for a second when she heard the driver say something she really hoped he wouldn't.

"Hey son, you heading to Kakariko?" the driver asked.

"yeah, Goron city, Kakariko is a step closer than here" she heard someone say outside the wagon, she already knew who it was, and she had really been hoping that she wouldn't come into such close contact with him.

"Climb aboard" the carpenter shouted. She heard soft, padding footsteps circling around the side of the wagon all the way to the back, then the Kokiri boy in green began to climb aboard. It was already too late for her to pretend she was asleep, so she sat up and looked him over, getting a closer look at his weapons and equipment than she had been able to get before.

Without a word, Link boarded the wagon and took a seat on the aisle across from her. After looking him over for a minute, she lay back down and got back to her nap, not wanting to attract attention to herself. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't sleep, so she was left laying there staring at the ceiling, dog tired and unable to close her eyes, having the person she was following so close to her was too exciting. As she lay there she saw him open the pouch at his side and reach into it, sinking his hand into the pouch up to his elbow.

'There is no way that pouch is that deep' Sophia thought to herself as he reached into it and pulled out a loaf of bread. She continued to watch as he drew his sword and positioned the point of it against the loaf of bread, as if he were about to use it as a knife.

"You aren't seriously going to try that, are you?" Sophia asked, not able to keep herself from asking as he prepared to cut the loaf of bread with his sword. Link looked up and a blue fairy peeked out from under his hat. The two of them looked at each other awkwardly for a few moments before Sophia spoke up.

"You're as likely to cut your hand off as you are to cut that bread" Sophia stated. Link slowly returned his sword to its sheath and Sophia drew her knife, spinning it around in her hand in a complex manner before holding it out to Link, handle first.

"Try to use something a bit more precise" she said as Link hesitantly took the knife and cut a slice off of the bread. He was about to hand the knife back, but then decided to cut a second slice and gave it to her, a small way of saying thank you for letting him borrow her knife. She took the bread gratefully and then sheathed the knife.

"Sophia Thebes" She introduced herself while holding out her hand.

"Link and this is Navi" Link said while grabbing her hand and shaking it firmly.

"Where are you headed?" Link asked.

"Goron city, I'm trying to see every corner of Hyrule before my fourteenth birthday, I'm going to Goron city and then Zoras domain" Sophia said. It was a plausible story, and Link bought into it quickly.

"That's awesome, I'm going to both of those places too, I just have a different reason" Link said. Sophia pretended to be surprised, when in actuality she had already known he was going to both of those places and had come up with her excuse for being at those places in the future.

"Cool, if you need help climbing the mountain, I'll show you some tricks" Sophia said before turning and laying back down. This time it was far easier to fall asleep, knowing that she had the full trust of the person sitting across from him, the person she would eventually have to kill.

((()))

Impa watched from the top of the outer southeastern turret of the castle. She had seen who had boarded the wagon that Link was now in, perhaps it was coincidence, but the person had a very strange magical aura. It was similar to those of the Gerudo, but just different enough for her to believe the person was really who she appeared to be, a Hylian. Perhaps she knew some Gerudo magic. Whatever the case, Impa had already decided to keep close watch on this strange black clad girl who appeared to be following the hero.

Impa walked back down from the castle turret, passing through the stone corridors and chambers that dotted the inside of the castle walls, until she reached the ground level and passed the two guards at the door. They both saluted when they saw who it was who had passed between them, and Impa returned with a Sheikah backwards salute, two fingers of her right hand pressed against the base of her skull.

Without slowing down, Impa began to walk towards the stables, planning on getting a horse to take to Kakariko village as quickly as possible. Then she froze in her tracks. She watched six fully armed Gerudo warriors walk right through the gates to the castle. Perhaps leaving would not be such a good idea, the king was blind in the current situation and he was leaving his gates open to the entire enemy army. They came in by small increments but there were already over two hundred within the walls and that count was rising by the day, and those were just the ones that weren't disguised. Unless they had some secret plan, they wouldn't have enough to take the castle.

Still, leaving things in the hands of the guard wouldn't be a great idea. Impa abandoned the idea of following the hero again, he would need to take care of himself, her part in his legend was complete. She turned back towards the inner castle and began walking. It was time for her to do her job now, guarding the princess, the legendary hero was on his own.

((()))

Link was jolted awake by a sudden bump in the road, his eyes opened slowly, he lay there staring at the swaying canopy of the wagon for a moment, before a second jolt convinced him it was time for action, he jumped to his feet and drew his sword in a single motion, pointing it out the back of the wagon, but seeing no enemy.

"Jumpy"

Link spun and saw the girl, Sophia, sitting there now wearing a red tunic instead of the black she had been wearing before. Link wondered if she had changed while he was asleep or if she was already wearing the tunic under the black one, he decided not to dwell on it.

"Yeah, what was that?" Link asked. Sophia stood up and looked out the back of the wagon.

"We're nearing the foot of the mountain, we're about five minutes out, we ran over some rocks in the path" Sophia said. She looked out the front to confirm what she had just said. Apparently it was correct because she didn't change her mind on it.

"You ever been here before? Death Mountain?" Sophia asked. Link put his sword back and looked through the front of the wagon, past the carpenter driving it. The mountain was huge this close to it. The mountain was four miles tall, twenty-one thousand feet. Link took it in; he hadn't seen how beautiful the mountain was until he was this close. Streaks of red and white stone went from the top right to the bottom left of the mountain. The ring of smoke was much blurrier this close up and obscured the top of the mountain in a thick murky shroud that glowed in the daylight.

"No, I've never even left the forest till a few days ago." Link replied. Sophia started to frown. Fate was cruel, had Gannondorf's plan not taken place, the boy she would eventually need too kill would not even have left the forest, and according to what she knew about the Kokiri, he would have lived in those woods till the end of time, happy as a child. Fate was cruel, but she had a job to do, she suppressed the emotions.

"That's sad" Sophia said, deciding that getting into his emotions couldn't hurt her chances. Link turned towards her with a questioning look, not sure what she meant by that.

"Here I am, doing my best to explore the entire world, and you've never even seen any of it" Sophia said. She really did think it was sad, but she needed his trust, even if she hurt herself in the process.

"I like the forest, if you ever see it, maybe you will understand" Link said.

"I might go there after I see Zoras domain, it's right on the way to Lake Hylia…" Sophia started. She already knew where this was going, she knew what happened to people who wandered into the woods.

"No!" Link shouted. She jumped as if surprised by the shout, a moment later she heard a yawn come from under his hat. The sound was likely the fairy waking up. There was a moment of awkward silence after Link shouted, but then he explained the reasoning behind it.

"People that go into the lost woods, outsiders, they usually don't make it back out, they get lost and they… die… almost always… it's a sure thing" Link stated. Sophia made a fake shocked expression at this news, even though it was something she already knew. Link was eating it up like candy.

"It's a shame, I really wanted to see the forest, I knew not many Hylians had ever seen them, but I didn't realize…" Sophia started in a dejected voice. Link couldn't take seeing her disappointed like that, and he did something she didn't expect.

"I can take you, after I finish my quest…" Link said. He caught himself saying something he shouldn't have, then clammed up. The edge of his hat shot open and a blue light peeked out, Navi looked down at Link first, than up at Sophia, before slowly sliding back under the hat, listening wearily to every word Link said.

"What quest?" Sophia asked. Now she was getting into the good stuff. Link seemed to be questioning himself over whether or not he should tell her, and eventually he decided to do so.

"I'm gathering the… OW!" Link shouted, he yanked off his hat and Navi flew out, clinging to a handful of hairs. Navi made a loud ringing noise and turned yellow, gesturing towards Sophia, pointing at her with the handful of hairs.

"Its alright, we can trust her." Link said, rubbing his head with his free hand. Navi didn't back down and continued ringing loudly. Sophia just watched and sort of laughed at the display.

"Alright, I trust her, what are you gonna do about it!" Link shouted. Navi's front end lowered in what Sophia interpreted as an expression of surrender. Link turned back to her, grinning.

"Sorry about that. Anyways, I'm gathering the spiritual stones, once I get all three; I need to get them to the princess so we can stop an evil man from getting the Triforce." Link explained. Sophia once again feigned shock at this. She gasped at the massive powers that Link had just admitted to being involved with.

"I already have one" Link continued while reaching in the pouch at his side and pulling out the roughly fist sized emerald encircled by a golden Kokiri symbol. Sophia gasped once again, this time truly amazed by what it was that she saw. The spiritual stone of the forest, something very few living beings had ever seen before. The stone glowed with a magical ambient light, filling the back of the wagon with a dark green glow.

"Can… can I" Sophia stammered, while reaching out towards the green and shining stone. Navi began to ring and change color again but Link shot Navi an angry look and she stopped quickly. Link turned towards Sophia and nodded. She slowly reached out towards the stone, then placed her hand on top of it. The glow brightened and she closed her eyes, feeling the soothing energy of the stone flow into her body. After a few seconds, her eyes slowly opened, and she immediately began to question everything. A small amount of the wisdom of the magic stone had been bestowed upon her, and she saw things she had never seen before, things that would be altered and changed if Gannondorf had his way.

"Amazing" Sophia breathed as she pulled her hand away from the front of the stone. It was going to be difficult personally, for her to kill the Kokiri boy, that much was evident already. She returned to her makeshift seat on the other side of the wagon still breathing heavily from the things she had seen in those few seconds of contact with the rock.

"Hey, we're here" the carpenter shouted from the front of the wagon. The wagon began to slow down and Link and Sophia noted that they were now in the center of a moderately sized village. The wagon halted in front of a construction work in progress, there was already a foundation and a frame for a building, but no walls or brickwork yet, just a rather large pile of bricks and all the wood in the back of the wagon.

"Thanks for the ride sir, is there any way we can pay you back, like helping you unload the wood?" Sophia asked as she and Link jumped out of the wagon. The carpenter shook his head and grinned as if Sophia had just made a joke or something. Sophia reached in and grabbed her pack as the carpenter began to speak.

"Are you kidding, the two of you combined equal about a third of one of us. It's really no problem, you can be on your way" the carpenter laughed. Link and Sophia bowed respectfully before turning towards the mountain, looking at its huge size and beauty once again.

"That's a big climb, we're gonna need supplies" Sophia stated while looking up at the mountain. Link looked up at the sun; about fifteen degrees short of straight above his head, about 10:30 in the morning would be a good guess as to the time. Sophia looked in every direction before settling for a cinderblock building near the east side of town, in the direction that they were already going anyways.

"watch your step in here, forest boy, I've seen places like these before" Sophia said, Link noticed her hand move to her knife and loosen the retaining strap, setting it in a less stable but faster drawing position. Whatever was on the other side of the door, she was a little bit worried about it.

"Ready" Link said while making sure his sword was in a good position to grab. Sophia nodded and then opened the door, briskly walking inside so she wouldn't be visible in the doorway too long. Link could already tell that something odd was going on inside the building. The moment the door opened a strong odor of smoke drifted out and not the kind that came off of the fireplace in the corner, it smelled like burning vegetation. People were smoking cigars, filled with what Link thought to be tobacco but was possibly something else, as well as drinking things similar to the drinks they had in the bar the previous night. There seemed to be several seedy businesses operating out of the corners of the building, only one seemed to really be legitimate, and it happened to be selling food. Sophia walked straight to it and looked over the selection for only a few moments before making her selections.

"Four loaves of barley bread, and two quarts of clean water, no bottle" Sophia said while pulling two quart sized bottles and ten rupees out of her pouch. Link looked up at the selection and saw that quart bottles cost five rupees a piece, but the water refills only cost one, and each loaf of barley bread cost two. The woman behind the counter reached underneath it and pulled out four wrapped loaves of barley bread, each about the length of Link's forearm and a bit wider. Then the woman took the bottles and refilled them from a large jar behind her. She then handed the bottles back and Sophia promptly put the bread and bottles of water in her pouch.

"Will that be all for you?" the woman asked. Sophia nodded and the woman behind the counter put the rupees in a thick iron box behind her, it was quite evident that there was probably no way into that box without the key, which she didn't have on her, she dropped the rupees down through a slot on the top and they clattered on top of the others in the bottom of the box, the key was likely at her house and she would probably retrieve the money in the middle of the night when nobody was around. In other words, she was definitely very smart.

Once Sophia stepped away from the counter, Link stepped forward and looked over the menu, which was just a wooden board with various items and prices painted on it. He decided to get the same thing as Sophia, except with the two bottles. He put down a red rupee on the counter; nearly half of what he had, then said his order. Moments later he had his purchase in hand and a moment later still it was in his pouch, and Sophia was watching him do it, confused every step of the way, there was far more stuff in the pouch than it physically should have been capable of holding.

"It's bottomless, magic, the interior expands but the exterior does not, there are only two that I know of" Link explained. Sophia just looked at it in awe.

"I gotta get me one of those" Sophia said.

"Good luck finding one" Link laughed as she led him over to the main part of the bar. Link noticed people eyeing him, sizing him up, checking out his weapons, a sword and a shield that they could see, not the kind of weaponry they wanted to mess with, even if it was wielded by a child. Still, they were eying him wearily, not knowing the slightest thing about the strange boy in their bar. They were looking oddly at Sophia too, mainly because she had a knife and was the only person in the building wearing bright colors besides Link, who walked alongside her.

"We need to fit in better, buy something at the bar, one bottle of summer ale, I don't want you getting tipsy and falling off the mountain." Sophia said. Link nodded in silent reply, then he heard Navi under his hat. She didn't dare come out for fear of revealing herself and possibly getting bottled, but she was close enough to Link's ears to speak without anyone else hearing.

"Do as she says, but try and get on with the quest" Navi recommended. Link nodded his head slightly to acknowledge that he heard her, and then took a seat next to Sophia at the bar. The bartender walked up and leaned over the counter to look at them.

"Shouldn't you two be at school" the old man behind the counter asked.

"Shouldn't you be at a nursing home" Sophia countered. The bartender narrowed his eyes and Sophia looked at him with the same challenging expression. Finally he laughed and stood back up off the counter.

"Alright, what can I get you two?" the man asked.

"Two summer ales" Sophia said before the bartender even finished asking. The bartender nodded and then turned around, grabbing two bottles off the wall behind him. He slapped the bottles down in front of Link and Sophia and popped the tops off in a single motion. Link picked up his bottle and drank it a little bit at a time, listening to the conversations going on around the room. He finished the bottle and by the time he was done with it he heard less of the conversations focus around him, Sophia's trick had worked, none of the patrons were focusing on them anymore, they had successfully melded with the crowd.

Then something changed in the bar. People near the doors stopped talking, then people in the middle of the place stopped talking; there were only a few muffled whispers. After only a few seconds, the entire place was silent. Link was about to turn and look, but something told him that it wouldn't be such a great idea if he wanted to live.

"So, I hear someone around here has a whole lot of money! Selling drinks, maybe! It's a real shame that this rich bastard didn't opt to share his rupees with me!" someone shouted near the door. Link could pick out two distinct sets of footsteps moving towards the bar. He peeked over his shoulder very carefully and saw two men armed with bows wearing all black walking towards the counter.

"You don't mess with the Phillips bandits! Sound familiar? Yeah, that's right, we stole the wand of gamelon, and we've even seen the faces of evil, and now we want your money!" the lead bandit shouted. Link weighed his options. He could let them rob the bar, and leave feeling angry at himself for not doing anything. Either than, or he could draw his sword, get shot twice, and end up dying on the bar floor.

He wasn't a so-called hero for nothing; he looked at his options again. His sword was out of the picture, using it would get him killed, he looked for other weapons. Sophia's knife was well within reach, he would be able to grab and throw it in a single motion, but that left one enemy still standing.

His bottle was still on the counter.

He grabbed the bottle and eyed the knife again, the bandits were close enough that he could make out their reflections in the glass of the bottle, he slowly tightened his grip on the drink and steeled himself for what he was about to do, easily the stupidest thing he had ever considered doing. Then he did it.

His first move was to kick off of the bar in a way that sent his chair spinning, then he grabbed Sophia's knife out of its sheath and threw it at the nearest enemy. Link's aim was terrible since he had never thrown a knife and likely never would again, but at only ten feet it was impossible to miss. The knife hit the nearest bandit in the leg and he fell, his arrow flying loose straight into the ceiling. Before the other bandit could react, Link had already thrown the bottle and it slammed into his face, breaking his nose before it shattered, sending fragments of glass into his face. His arrow also went into the ceiling, though lower than his comrade's.

The rest of the patrons in the bar reacted reasonably quickly and disarmed the two men before they could try and resist. One of them handed Link back the knife and he in turn handed it back to Sophia, who was still too shocked to say anything on the subject. Navi, on the other hand, was shouting her head off under his hat about how stupid he was. Link ignored her shouting and got up, pulling Sophia with him towards the door.

"Young man!" the bartender shouted from behind the bar. Link and Sophia turned to see what he was shouting about.

"Young man, before you go, at least tell me your name!" the bartender shouted. Every occupant of the bar turned to see how he replied. Link turned in the doorway, outlined by the sunlight streaming through the door.

"Link" He said, before turning and walking out the door to the bar, leaving a stunned and amazed crowd behind him, they wouldn't forget his name. Not in a million years.


	9. The Mountain of Fire

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 9: The Mountain of Fire

The mountain towered above them. Four miles high, unknown miles of twisted pathways and zigzags to get to the Goron city. The red and orange stone of Death Mountain seemed to glow in the burning noon heat, easily over a hundred degrees, though that temperature would be about forty at the altitude of the Goron city, only about seven hundred feet below the snow line and about a thousand feet below the permanent icecap that covered the top of the mountain. Link just stood there for a moment, trying to comprehend the idea that in a few short minutes. He would be at the top of the mountain, looking down on the village he currently was in from a few thousand feet above. He decided not to dwell on it though, and kept on moving. Sandstone pebbles crunched under his feet, as he took his first step on the road up Death Mountain.

"According to this map, the trail itself is fifteen miles long, and has 3 landslide affected zones. So definitely some serious climbing thrown in, ten hours if we get really lucky with those collapsed sections." Sophia said while folding up the map of Death Mountain and putting it back in her pouch. Link looked over at her for a moment, then back at the mountain, he clapped his hands together in anticipation and began to jog, closely followed by Sophia, effectively starting their trek up the mountain of fire.

The first mile of trail was easy, it was an upward slope of about five degrees and the path was reasonably well maintained. With the upward slope of five degrees they gained about five feet of elevation for every eighty five they walked, just as an approximation. At that rate, they were gaining altitude at about ten feet per minute, but jogging completely uphill was exhausting them quickly, and soon they opted to settle into a fast walk, which got them about seven feet of altitude per minute. At that rate it was going to take more than the half day they had left to get to the top of the mountain.

The trail began to change though, the first mile was easy at just five degrees of slope, but it began to slope upward more dramatically, turning into a ten degree slope for another mile, than settling in at about thirteen degrees. It wasn't a problem, climbing so high, so fast, for a while, but their exhaustion continued to get worse as their muscles tired from the long and strenuous walk.

"Lets take a break, five minutes" Sophia said while walking over to a boulder on the side of the path. Link walked over and took a seat next to her, pulling one of his bottles out of his pouch and taking a small drink from it, then ripping off a chunk of bread and eating it as well. That restored some of his energy and he could feel the strength moving back into his legs.

Sophia did the same as Link, using her combat knife to take about a third of one of the loaves instead of just tearing off a chunk like Link had done. They both ate slowly to stretch out the break, then after about two minutes they got back up and kept moving at a fast walking pace, continuing towards the Goron city, halfway up Death Mountain. After another twenty minutes, they had gained about three hundred feet of altitude, but began to hear a strange noise ahead; it sounded like talking but in lower voices than Link had ever heard.

"Brother, the cavern is completely blocked, that is good, no Dodongos get out." One said. Link and Sophia rounded the corner and saw two Gorons standing next to a massive boulder that appeared to have fallen from the above cliff, which was marked as if by some sort of detonation. An explosion had recently caused the boulder to fall into its current position.

"It is most certainly Gannondorf's doing, look at that, those are marks from manufactured bombs, and this fragmentation all over the place, it's definitely his doing" another Goron said. The other one nodded in agreement, then looked up the mountain, staring at the smoke ring above for a moment.

"Alright, we can't use the caverns as a shortcut; we must take the normal route up the mountain." The first Goron said. The other one agreed and turned towards the path, rolling up into a ball about half his original height and almost perfectly circular.

"Last one to the top has bomb-flower picking duty!" the Goron shouted, the other one frowned and looked at him with a confused expression on his stony face.

"But it's your turn!" the Goron complained.

"More reason for you to want to win!" the other Goron shouted before speeding off up the hill. The Goron that had just complained laughed and then curled into a ball, speeding off after the other Goron. Their laughs echoed off the cliff sides and faded into the distance quickly as they got further and further away, until they were only echoes in the distance. Link looked up the mountain after them, before turning towards the boulder they had been talking about while still in earshot.

Link looked at the boulder suspiciously; supposedly the other side contained a shortcut to the summit. Sophia walked up to it and felt the edges, the many sharp angles to the boulder crunched against the edge of the cliff. Then she took a step back again and looked at the entire big picture, up and down the cliff face.

"If I had to make a guess, the Dodongos cavern is on the other side of the boulder." Sophia said, comparing the map of the mountain to the area they were in. Link took a look at the map as well and saw what she was talking about; they were at the first of two hairpin turns in the zigzagging path up the mountain.

"Yes, that is Dodongos cavern" Navi said, peeking at the map from beneath his hat. She hadn't been very talkative lately, Link wasn't quite sure why, but she had hardly said anything since the wagon ride that morning. Link wondered if she was still angry at him for not trusting her judgment of Sophia. Based on what he had gathered so far about the annoying little fairy that he actually sort of needed, she was actually probably angrier about being wrong than she was about the fact that Link hadn't trusted her judgment. Whatever the case, Link knew he was going to need to be careful about how he responded to the fairy in the future, the last thing he needed was a pissed off fairy not willing to give him any help at all.

"But, isn't that supposed to be where the Gorons get their food from?" Sophia asked. Link wasn't sure if that was right or not, he didn't even know all that much about Hyrule and its races, but Navi thankfully knew the answer and wasn't pissed off enough to withhold that information.

"Yes, I don't know why it would be blocked like that, without it they have no source of food" Navi explained. That gave Link another question though, something he hadn't thought about before.

"What could they possibly eat from a cavern?" Link asked. Sophia was quick to explain that one, she knew enough about the Gorons to know the answer to Link's question.

"The Gorons are man-like but the similarities end there, their bodies are made entirely from rock. They eat rocks to regenerate the minerals that allow them to survive. The rocks of the Dodongos cavern are very soft and mineral rich, by eating them they are able to remain reasonably flexible and well fed, without those mineral rich rocks, they would become statues from eating the hard and barren rocks of the mountain's surface" Sophia explained. Link had trouble comprehending that there was any creature in the world that could eat rocks, but then again, the Hylians drank alcohol and Link didn't really understand that either, maybe it was a matter of preference, or maybe it was just that they were built differently. Whatever the case, Link found it just plain odd, what he found even stranger was that the entire supposed food source of the Gorons was completely blocked off by a giant boulder, which he supposed even they could not move on their own, something was definitely wrong, he just wasn't sure what yet.

"The first cliff should be in about a quarter mile, we should keep moving if we want to get to the city by sundown." Sophia said while continuing up the path, deciding the anomaly was not worth their time, Link agreed, whatever problem the Gorons were having with their cavern, it was not yet of his concern. What was of his concern was getting to the top of the mountain before nightfall. He quickly continued to follow Sophia up the side of the mountain towards the first cliff face, which they reached after about five minutes of walking up the steep pathway, which was becoming progressively more difficult to navigate…

…"Alright, here it is, this one is supposed to be the easiest climb, the next one will be harder and the third one is the hardest." Sophia explained while taking the lead. Quickly scanning the cliff they had encountered. It wasn't quite was Link had expected. He had been envisioning a flat cliff, but what they had found was more like a very steep wall of boulders, not as much of an obstacle as he had previously expected. But then again, it was supposedly the easiest of the three cliffs they would encounter.

"Watch your step, you don't want to knock anything lose, try and go the same way as I do. And for the love of Nayru, don't fall, its seventy feet top to bottom" Sophia stated while continuing to look over the excessively simple looking, but quite dangerous cliff that they were being faced with. She paced back and forth along the bottom of the slope, looking at possible routes up the minefield of loose boulders and snake nests.

"Follow me" she stated as she decided on a route and began to climb. Link looked up the slope and could easily see the route that she was talking about, a curved swath of the cliff that was completely barren of small rocks and also had the easiest slope, about 75 degrees all the way up to the top. She pulled out her knife and Link wondered for a moment why, but decided not to ask, figuring that he would see why in a minute. Sure enough, he figured it out, and when he did, he pulled out his weapon as well. Sophia dodged to the side as something shot out of the cliff face and then stabbed it with her knife. Once it had stopped thrashing and was completely dead, Link could see that it was a snake about as thick as his arm. Had Sophia been bit by that it could have been a big problem.

"Cliff Viper, not poisonous, but look at those fangs" Sophia said while prying the dead snake's mouth open with her knife. Upon opening the snake's mouth Sophia revealed fangs about half the size of her knife.

"It doesn't need poison; getting bit by those is like getting stabbed…" she pointed at the dual fangs on the top and the equally sized ones on the bottom "four times". Link nodded, keeping his sword ready in his left hand and stabilizing himself while he climbed with his right. With only minimal climbing assistance from his left hand, it suddenly became far more difficult to climb towards the top of the slope, now he started to get why the slopes between him and the top of the mountain were going to make things difficult, and this was supposedly the easiest one. Link groaned under his breath and continued to climb up the slope; this was going to be more difficult than he thought.

"Just keep moving and try not to think about how boring this is" Sophia shouted from higher up on the slope. He just groaned again and continued to climb towards the top of the first cliff. After about two minutes of climbing the first cliff, they reached the top, without encountering any more of the cliff vipers, but a quick look at the map showed that they were still a long way from the entrance to the city. Link put his sword away as they reached the top of the first cliff and Sophia returned her knife to the sheath under her arm.

"Alright, five more miles, then we have another cliff, then six more miles to the city" Sophia said without looking at the map, she already had memorized the important information and no longer needed it, it now sat unneeded in her pack. She continued to keep the lead and they continued to make their way up the mountain, unfazed by the constantly steep slope that they needed to navigate continually. It was definitely going to be a very long day.

"Hold up, short break" Sophia said while halting and sitting down on a rock roughly the size of a bench. Link sat down on another large rock nearby and pulled out the same loaf of bread from before and tore a chunk off it, which he quickly ate and washed down with a gulp of water from one of the bottles. Sophia ate a piece of her bread and also a little bit of water before standing up and beginning to walk around the edge of a house-sized boulder.

"Where are you going?" Link asked. Sophia just giggled awkwardly when he asked the question and continued to step behind the boulder.

"Bathroom… geez, you're so nosy" Sophia laughed. Link laughed a little, waited a second as she walked around the size of the boulder, and then yanked his hat off. Navi immediately flew into the air and glared at him angrily; Link glared back and immediately began asking questions.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Link asked. Navi just continued to glare for several moments before angrily addressing him.

"I can't believe you're so stupid. You trust that girl with your life every second you stay around her; you're risking the fate of Hyrule every time you take a step alongside her." Navi warned angrily. Link frowned as Navi said this, but didn't let it faze him.

"So, what's wrong with her?" Link asked. Navi just sighed as if it was obvious and continued to lecture Link as if he were a small child that had just broken something important.

"How many girls have you seen running around Hyrule with a dagger under their arm?" Navi asked rhetorically. Link grinned when Navi asked that question and replied in a matter of fact tone.

"How many boys have you seen running across Hyrule with a sword and shield on their back" Link asked sarcastically. Navi sighed and then spoke in a low voice.

"You're disregarding my advice, that's a bad idea, eventually you're gonna get burned and remember that." Navi said angrily. Link put his hat back on and Navi slowly fluttered beneath it, trembling with fury. Link sat down on the slab of rock and ripped off another chunk of the bread, eating it while he waited for Sophia to return from around the other side of the boulder. After another minute or so she came back and they headed out again on unspoken agreement, and continued towards the Goron city…

((()))

Inner Hyrule castle was not entirely what it appeared on the outside. The exterior walls were made of solid marble, but the inside was made mostly of cheaper and sturdier granite. The problem with granite was that it didn't cling to the mortar used in the construction of the castle as well as marble and some other fragile types of rock. This meant that the mortar binding together the walls was almost constantly being replaced at one point or another inside the castle. Unfortunately, the underground chambers were neglected so more effort could be focused on the main levels. As a result, Impa's boots were splashing through about an inch of water that had seeped through the walls and onto the floor. Zelda, who was following her, hiked up her skirt so it wouldn't get soaked in the filthy water that had been stagnating on the floor for years. She reached the last stairway she had spent the last half hour searching for and checked the designation carved into the wall to be sure it was the right one.

_(B-8)-(B-9)_

Impa was satisfied that it was the correct stairwell, and then walked down, assisting the princess down the slippery stairs and into the lowest level of the castle. Zelda gave up trying to keep her dress dry the moment she realized that the water on the bottom floor was up to her knees. She looked at the black water with a disgusting look and then turned to Impa.

"Why are we down here again?" Zelda asked. Impa continued to lead the way, not responding to the question for several seconds as she paid her attention to figuring out where the hidden chamber was. Finally, after several seconds of wading, Impa replied to the slightly impatient princess.

"We are here because of destiny" Impa replied. She continued walking until she found a rotten wooden door with a barely readable inscription that said _L is real 2401._Zelda looked at the door, not understanding the inscription that was carved into it, so faded she could hardly even tell what is said.

"What does that mean?" Zelda asked, pointing at the inscription. Impa just looked at it for a second and then grinned, as if remembering some joke from a long time ago. Then she turned back to Zelda to give her a serious answer about what exactly it meant.

"It means nothing. This sign is here to convince anyone who does not know what it means that there is absolutely nothing of significance on the other side of this door, and it works every single time" Impa stated, still grinning at some long lost joke and Zelda couldn't stand not knowing what that joke was, so she decided to ask.

"What is L?" Zelda asked. Impa just looked at her funny, as if she had already answered the question, and then replied very simply.

"L is nothing, its just an old inscription we used because we couldn't come up with anything better, originally we were just going to put scribbles here but it would be too indistinct and would attract unnecessary attention" Impa said. She then grabbed the door handle and slowly pushed the door open, being careful not to break the rotted boards and waterlogged frame. Impa pushed the door all the way open and held her torch out into the next room. There was not much there. The entire chamber was dominated by a raised platform with a pirate-style treasure chest resting on top. Impa waded into the room and Zelda followed close behind, Impa stopped alongside the treasure chest and beckoned Zelda forward. Zelda complied and walked up to the treasure chest, which upon Impa's command, she opened. Inside was a Sheikah uniform and a short dagger of their style, Zelda reached down into the chest and slowly lifted out the contents, which she studied carefully. As she was pulling the items out of the chest, something fell and made a knocking noise in the bottom of the chest. Zelda looked down into the chest to see what had made that noise. In the bottom of the chest, sat something that couldn't possibly have really been there. In the bottom of the chest, was the ocarina of time.

"How… how did that get there? I though that my father had…" Zelda started, staring at the ocarina sitting in the bottom of the chest. Impa picked it up and placed it on top of the stack of clothes and items in Zelda's arms.

"Your father, has a fake, and he knows it" Impa replied. "he didn't want to know where the real one was, he just told me to give it to you when the time came, and I know that time is very soon. Someday, soon, I will no longer be around to defend you. You will still have your part to play in the story of the hero of time, and I will not be able to help you with it. You must learn the way of the Sheikah, and become the greatest unseen warrior the world has ever seen. You must become, Sheik"

((()))

"Suns going down" Sophia stated. She stopped for a second beside the trail and looked up at the flaming golden sky, before continuing to walk. Link continued to follow behind her but he already knew that there was no way they were going to reach the Goron city before midnight, and walking along the narrow paths of the mountain in dark and cold weather would be an invitation for disaster.

"We should stop here, we can't climb the final cliff without daylight as our ally" Sophia stated. She didn't need to convince Link, the cliffs had been difficult enough in the daytime, and the last one was supposedly the most difficult. Link looked up at the brilliant light of the sky and stood still for a second. The colors of the sky had already begun to fade and it was another two miles to the cliff. They wouldn't be able to make it no matter how hard they ran.

Link was about to say something to confirm that this was a good idea, but as he opened his mouth to speak, he heard a skittering noise at the top of the cliff to their left. Apparently Sophia had heard it too because she had stopped in her tracks and her hand drifted to the knife strapped under her arm. Link listened for the skittering noise again and reached for his sword. Just to make sure she had heard it and wasn't reacting to something else, Link asked.

"Did you?..." Link started, but he didn't finish because an angry look crossed Sophia's face and she waved her hand frantically for him to shut up. Link stopped talking and slowly drew his sword and shield, scanning the top of the cliff for any sign of movement. Sophia drew her knife as well and made her way slowly and quietly towards Link.

"Tektites" Sophia whispered while spinning the knife around in a half-crescent in her hand so the ten inch blade stuck out of the bottom of her closed right fist. Link continued to watch the tops of the cliffs but didn't see anything unusual. The skittering sound came up again and this time Link could swear he saw a boulder move. He gave the boulder a closer look and saw that it was a little bit brighter a shade of red than the ones around it. Looking closer still he saw that the boulder had odd-looking ridges, and protrusions that looked like massive insect legs. Then, a second later, Link realized that it had, in fact, moved. The spidery legs snapped straight like soldiers at attention, but in a millisecond and without any warning. Then, the 'boulder' shot into the air and high over their heads before slamming into the ground behind them, sending a slight tremor through the ground.

Link was quick to react; he jumped at the tektite and swung his sword downward at it with all the force he could put behind the blade. The steel slammed into the exoskeleton of the monster and there was a sickening crack, but when Link looked at where he had hit the monster, there was only a crack in the thick, bony skeleton, which green fluid leaked out of at a snail's pace. The tektite was practically unharmed, and before Link could attack again, it let out a shrill screech, and then leapt at him. Link lifted his shield, and it got its first use knocking the insect-like creature off to the side, putting it just far enough away that it couldn't reach Link with its snapping mandibles.

"Watch out!" Sophia shouted. Link turned just in time to see another tektite, and another; all launch themselves off the top of the cliff. More kept on coming after the one before. Either there was some sort of nest up on the cliff, or that shriek the first one had made was some sort of signal to say _'Free Food'_. Either way, it meant trouble for him and Sophia, because when the monsters finally stopped jumping down from the cliff, there were nine of them, including the one Link had already engaged.

Sophia leapt into action. She ran towards the nearest monster and before it could leap at Link, she jumped on it and grabbed onto the bottom of its armored shell with her left hand, wielding her knife with her right. She jammed the knife into the joint where the front-right of the monster's four legs met its body. There was a gap in the exoskeleton there, as well as at every other joint, and Sophia took full advantage of that. The tektite let out a squeal of pain as the knife was jammed in through the top of its joint and out through the bottom. Pressurized green fluid sprayed out of the wound along the edges of the knife and Sophia gave the weapon a twist, which was accompanied by a sickening, wet, crack, as the creature's leg was ripped from its body and fell to the ground in a puddle of green blood. The creature tried to jump into the air to shake her off but with only three legs it wasn't able to and only succeeded in collapsing to the ground, where Sophia used the knife to rip out its eye and the small, attached brain, which fell to the ground as a useless pile of flesh and organs.

"Aim for the eye, and the joints in the armor!" Sophia shouted to Link. Link had already realized that this was a good idea; unfortunately he also was being attacked by the better part of the horde. Only two more of the tektites had turned towards Sophia after her first kill, while the other six that remained, including the first one, were focused on Link. His green clothes didn't blend as well with the terrain as Sophia's red tunic, and the fact that he was slightly larger in stature than her anyways, and the fact that he had been fighting the original monster, made him the bigger of the two targets.

Link was doing his best to outrun the six creatures trailing behind him, and he was doing so successfully, though they could jump very high it appeared that it was also the only form of motion that they could use, so Link could easily run around behind one and hit it from behind and there would be nothing it could do. Unfortunately, the tektites were not stupid enough to fall for this, and before he could get behind any of them they had formed a line instead, so there was no way past them and not enough space between them to run through the line. Link looked towards Sophia to see if she could assist him but it was quite obvious she couldn't, she was still fighting furiously with the two that had come for her. He was on his own. He wondered why Navi wasn't coming out from under his hat to give him advice like she was supposed to. He figured that she was probably still angry with him for not taking her advice earlier, but whatever the case, he couldn't rely on her help at the moment and that was all that mattered.

The first tektite jumped at Link and time seemed to slow down, he saw the blue eye contrasted by the red exoskeleton and focused on it, lifting his sword into a stabbing position. The eye seemed to open wider in surprise as the tektite realized that he wasn't running away like most prey would in that situation. The realization dawned on the stupid monster a moment later that the thing it was attacking was not its prey; the thing it was lunging at was the predator. It was too late to turn, too late to do anything, so the creature just kept drifting through the air towards the man in green until his sword passed cleanly though its eye and ended its miserable life.

Even though the tektite was completely lifeless by the time it reached him, it retained its velocity and slammed into his chest with enough force to knock him to the ground. Link fell backwards and the body of the tektite rolled past him, beginning to dissolve in an eerie green/blue fire, which glowed inharmoniously with the golden skies of sunset, now half turned into dark blue by the onset of night. His sword was still half embedded in the body of the tektite which wouldn't be fully dissolved for another ten seconds. That wouldn't be enough time because the other tektites were already lowering their bodies towards the ground, preparing to all hop simultaneously and overwhelm him with their numbers, there was no way to fight an attack like that, unless he could buy himself more time.

_I can buy myself more time_

The realization dawned on him and less than a second later he had pulled a Deku nut out of the pouch at his side, which he chucked into the face of the nearest tektite. Link closed his eyes and covered his ears as the Deku nut exploded below the monster's eye and completely blinded it, its vision would never return in the few seconds it had left to live. The other tektites were momentarily stunned by the sudden and unexpectedly harsh explosion and they hesitated long enough for Link to roll backward and stop next to the body of the dead monster. The body was almost fully disintegrated now and Link pulled his sword out of the cadaver. The four tektites that could still see jumped forward in unison and Link got a crazy idea for how to take them out. He ran backwards almost a hundred feet to a narrow point in the path and waited. Soon, the monsters were upon him, but this time, when the lead monster jumped at him, he knocked it to the right with his shield, it flipped sideways over the edge of the mountain and let out a faint and distant shriek, before becoming a green splatter-mark on the ground over half a mile below. The next monster to leap at Link met the exact same fate, as well as the one after that, and then the final one. All that left for Link to do was to walk forward up to the blinded tektite that was thrashing wildly on the ground, and end its life with a blade through its face.

Sophia had handled the two attacking her like an expert. Link could tell looking at the bodies that one of the creatures had been killed by a knife jammed through its eye; the other had lost three limbs and bled out, its green juices staining the red rock of the mountainside. The whole battle had taken less than two minutes and they both had gotten away relatively unscathed. Link only had a headache from hitting the ground when he had been knocked flat by the dead tektite, and Sophia only had a shallow cut across her forearm where she had been grazed by a tektite's jaws. Soon the corpses of the dead monsters dissolved and Link didn't bother to clean his sword. The green bio-matter on the blade was engulfed by the same kind of blue/green flames and the sword was clean as when it had left the forge, wherever that forge may have been.

"Alright, lets get away from here, before more of those things come" Link suggested. Sophia shook her head to signal a 'no'.

"Those things live in colonies, colonies average about ten so I'd figure we just wiped one out. They're very territorial, so odds are we just got rid of all the tektites within a quarter mile." Sophia explained. It made sense and Link didn't feel like walking anymore anyways, so they both walked over to where the path met the bottom of the cliff and began to set up camp for the night. For now, the adventure was on stand-by, it was time to get some sleep.


	10. Goron City

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 10: Goron City

It didn't take long to find a good place to spend the night. The left side of the trail, facing the rest of the mountain, was a cliff pockmarked with hollows and overhangs. One overhang stuck out over ten feet and curved upwards, so if it rained or snowed none would get under it, that was the place to go. They stepped into the small alcove, enclosed on five of six sides, and Link immediately realized how cold it had been out on the mountain.

Though Link hadn't realized it before, the temperature had slowly been dropping as they ascended the mountain, and now they were over two miles above sea level and it was at about fifty Fahrenheit with high winds. Out of the wind, the temperature rose just enough to make them conscious of the change since earlier that day, and they both immediately began to shiver.

"You need to light a fire or you'll freeze" Navi stated. Link could hear in her voice that she was still angry at him for not taking her advice. Link didn't really care anymore that she was angry at him, thus far he hadn't really needed her help and he just hoped he wouldn't need it in the near future either. Link just crossed his arms across his chest and tucked his hands beneath his armpits to conserve his own body heat. He decided to give Navi a smart remark, revenge, for her being a selfish annoying bitch.

"With what, the trees eight miles behind us, we haven't seen a damned stick for hours!" Link shouted. Navi didn't reply to this, but seemed to silently acknowledge that he was correct. Sophia just smirked and chuckled under her breath before taking off her heavy pack and setting it down with a loud thump at the back of the alcove. Link noticed deep red lines on her neck from where the thick leather straps of her pack had dug into her neck and shoulders and worn her skin raw with the force of about fifty pounds of stuff that was in the bag. She pulled a handful of a yellow powdery substance out of her pack and Link looked at it curiously. She just dropped the handful of yellow powder on the ground at the center of the alcove and spread it into a circle about a foot and a half across.

"Who needs wood?" Sophia laughed while drawing a strange looking pattern into the dusty film she had placed on the floor. Link looked at the pattern, trying to decipher what it meant, but before he could, the symbol suddenly burst into flames and Link jumped back in surprise and Sophia laughed lightheartedly at his reaction. Navi also appeared to be surprised by the effect, but also seemed to be afraid of it, afraid of Sophia even more than before. Link didn't mind though, whatever Sophia had done, it was a heat source for the rest of the night, and that was plenty to make Link happy.

"It's a trick I picked up in the desert, the Gerudo mix saltpeter and charcoal and sand in the right amount to make it, this mix will burn for about five hours. The powder burns on its own; it just takes a little magic to light it up." Sophia explained. Link nodded, not quite understanding how it worked, but accepting the basic principle of it. Powder burns, use magic to light it on fire, seems simple enough.

Sophia circled around the edge of the alcove, ducking her head to avoid hitting it on the rocky ceiling. She reached her pack and pulled it open, pulling out a folded blue tunic and a blanket, she tossed the blanket to Link and then switched out her red tunic for the blue one. Link was surprised to see how much armor she wore beneath her tunic, a tunic made of thick brown leather with toughened plates of what appeared to be tektite exoskeleton over the chest and back to protect the vitals, and under that were brown pants and a long sleeve brown shirt. Link couldn't see much about her physical condition through the layers of clothing and light armor, but she must have been very thin, yet capable of carrying a total of about seventy pounds of equipment and clothing. Link wondered what kind of person could do that… were all hylians like that? Link didn't think so, but he wasn't sure since he hadn't met all that many.

Link just took the blanket and sat down, leaning against the stone wall of the alcove. Sophia stuck her hand out towards the fire for a moment and then muttered something under her breath, the flames brightened slightly but the fire still wasn't warm enough to heat all corners of the alcove.

"I will admit, wood does burn a bit warmer, the Gerudo use their fires for light mostly" Sophia apologized. Link just grinned and shook his head slightly.

"Way better than no fire at all" Link replied. Navi fluttered out from under his hat and went over to the front of the alcove. She fluttered there for a second, her blue light glowing dim, before she began to fly outside.

"I'll keep watch; I'll let you know if I see anything." Navi said, before disappearing into the night. Link just watched her go and frowned, something was seriously wrong with Navi, and it seemed to be past the point of jus being angry at him of afraid of Sophia, it was something else entirely, and Link intended to find out what it was, but not now, he was going to give the annoying ball of light some time before he confronted it.

"What's up with the tunics?" Link asked. Sophia looked down at her clothes for a second, momentarily confused by the question, then after thinking about it for a second she figured out what the question meant and replied.

"Oh, the tunics are magic, each one does different things. The red one is fireproof; it decreases the amount of heat that reaches your body to a manageable amount. The blue tunic allows you to breathe underwater and keeps in body heat better."

"So, you wear the blue in cold weather and the red when it's hot?" Link asked.

"only when its at an extreme, if we had to go inside death mountain it would have been hundreds of degrees, and tonight the temperature is going to drop to almost freezing" Sophia explained. Link subconsciously pulled the blanket closer when he heard her say 'almost freezing'. Link had only experienced temperatures like that twice in his life. Once ten years ago and again three years ago, right in the middle of winter, the temperature dropped to the point where there was a film of ice on the pond. Link had been bundled in every blanket he had and he still thought that it was cold. At least here he had a fire about five feet away from him incase it got too cold, and according to Sophia it would last five hours. That meant that the flames would last for most of the night and at the very least through the coldest part of it. Link sat wrapped in his blanket, leaning backwards against the stone wall, and listened to the sounds of the night. Outside the small halo of light provided by the fire, there was an endless sea of blackness. It wasn't the blackness of nightmare though; it was the blackness of peace, an emptiness precariously balanced on the knifes-edge of day. Link knew there were stars out there, he couldn't see them because the fire was so bright, but he knew they were there. There were probably more than he could see in the forest too, half the clouds were now actually below his altitude.

Link sat there, thinking about the stars, how many millions of them there were, how full the sky was of them. He felt so small in comparison to the angels of light that glowed in the night sky. The only break in the perfect silence was his own breathing; not even the crackling of fire interrupted it since the powder didn't burn in the same way as wood, completely silent. After a while, the serenity was interrupted. Link heard Sophia's breathing become heavier and slower, longer deeper breaths, she was asleep. Link looked back outside of the recess where their fire was built; he could feel the cold of the outside struggling against the warmth of the fire. Eventually the cold would win against the fire, which was dim in comparison to those many stars which lit the sky, but it would not be for a while. Eventually, Link's curiosity got the better of him, he stood up, draping the blanket over his shoulders, and stepped outside, leaving his sword and shield in the depression where their camp was made.

The moment he stepped out of the alcove, he was assaulted by the biting cold. He could feel the sting of frigid air against his arms and face. He wrapped the blanket tighter around himself and the assault of the needles of ice faltered some, though he could still feel the chill biting into his skin, gnawing its way through layers of clothing and assaulting him. His clothing had been designed for the damp, humid, summer heat of the forest, it had been designed to keep him cool, and so when the temperature dropped it didn't do very much to help him. He didn't need to be out for long anyways, he just wanted to see the stars that he had never seen before and possibly would never have a chance to see again.

His first steps into the night were tentative, unsure, but in the moonlight he could easily see the path and the edge of the mountain and knew exactly how far he could go before he would be in any danger. He walked further away from the alcove, slowly to avoid disturbing the peace, and then stood about ten feet from the edge of a thousand foot pit, looking up at the sky. There was nothing obscuring the sky on this night, it was the perfect place, he wished Saria could have seen it too, but she was a long ways away and he knew he wouldn't see here for a long time either. He missed her, which he thought was sort of funny because he had only left the forest two and a half days before. He wondered if it had really only been that long, he thought back to make sure. He was definitely sure, he knew because he had only spent two nights away from the forest and this one was his third. The first had been at the ranch with the red haired girl and the second at the inn in the castle.

Link took a seat on the gravel trail and reclined against a rock that must have weighed ten times as much as him. At that time Link began to experience something he hadn't felt in a long time and knew he would feel many times more before he was done with his quest…

… It was loneliness

Link felt at that moment that there wasn't anyone that really truly cared about him. Sophia had been a great help, but he had only known her for a grand total of about twelve hours. Saria was his best friend, but she was in the forest and he knew they wouldn't see each other for a long time. And then there was Navi. Link wasn't sure what Navi counted as, she wasn't his friend, but she did everything that a friend would do, he didn't know what to call Navi, but it definitely wasn't friend.

Just as he was thinking this thought, that which he was thinking of silently flew up to him from somewhere up in the cliffs and landed on his shoulder. Link looked at the fairy wordlessly and then back up at the sky. Link couldn't see the fairy itself through the blue aura of light that obscured it from view, but watching the wings tilt downward, Link knew that Navi was also looking up at the sky, marveling at the brilliance of the stars and moon.

"Why don't you trust Sophia?" Link asked. Navi had been expecting the question for quite a while, and though she had given a partial answer earlier, it hadn't been nearly enough of one to satisfy Link and apparently Navi already had come to the same conclusion.

"She isn't normal. Not in the way that every person is different, but in the way that she knows things that she definitely shouldn't know." Navi said. Link thought the fairy was referring to him explaining to Sophia his quest, when in actuality she was referring to something else.

"Just because I told her about the quest doesn't mean that I shouldn't trust her. If anything, I should be willing to trust her more now that she knows about it." Link said. Navi shook her head and even though Link couldn't see it through her bright aura, he could sense that Navi was telling him that he had it all wrong.

"No, it's not that, she knows about Gerudo magic, she knows about magic tunics, she knows how to avoid trouble, she knows how to fight monsters, do I need to keep going?" Navi asked. Link began to get the picture that Navi was painting for him, and in Link's opinion it was downright outrageous to even think that, there was no way the Hylian girl was in league with Gannondorf and the Gerudo thieves. Then again, from everything he had heard, Link knew that the Gerudo were very sneaky, it was possible that they could convince a Hylian girl to work with them to some end. Link immediately banished the thought from his mind though, it just seemed like a completely outlandish idea that they could have convinced someone to just follow him on a quest like that; it was much more likely that they were just going to the same place at the same time. Still, Link knew that Navi had just planted a seed of doubt in his mind and it wouldn't be uprooted quite as easily as it was placed.

"That's ridiculous" Link just stated bluntly.

"Keep that opinion of every time I try to help you, and you won't get very far." Navi said before turning and heading into the sky. Link watched as Navi flew high enough to blend in with the stars, any one watching would have trouble seeing Navi, but Navi could see everything within miles of the camp, if anything started heading their way, Navi would drop from the sky and give Link and Sophia plenty of warning of whatever was coming. Link looked up at the sky for a minute after Navi stopped, he blinked and didn't try finding the fairy again, even knowing where she was in the sky didn't help him spot her and he gave up almost immediately.

He turned back towards the alcove at the bottom of the cliff and walked towards the firelight, keeping the blanket draped over his shoulders like a cape as he walked. He made sure not to make much noise as he entered the small recess, to avoid waking Sophia. He sat down in the same place on the far side of the alcove about five feet from the small fire. He could feel its warmth through his boots and he took them off to make sure he didn't melt the soles, then turned sideways so he was broadside to the fire and got more of its warmth. He then took his shoes and stacked them behind his head with his hat folded on top which he used as a pillow. Once he had done this he was pretty sure he was as prepared as he could get for the night and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep.

Link only opened his eyes once before he drifted into the dream world, he looked over at Sophia. Asleep she seemed so fragile, like a glass balanced on the edge of a table, waiting to carelessly be knocked to a stone floor where it would shatter in a million pieces. How could someone like that possibly be an enemy, Link didn't know how Navi couldn't see it, but something about her just gave Link a feeling of peace. She was no enemy. At that thought, Link closed his eyes and reclined back down onto the makeshift pillow of shoes and cloth, and drifted into the netherworld…

((()))

Jack didn't sleep. Jack liked the dark, but not the kind he could find inside his eyelids, he liked the dark of night, where the glow of the moon and stars burnt the world in a silver fire. The glow of that platinum flame lit his face pale white and reflected off his dark green eyes. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, recalling the events of that day. It had been boring for a while, very boring. Three hours of tending the fields, a break to go to the bar at noon, then another six hours of work, somewhere in there he got a little time to teach his friend Carrie archery, which she still hadn't learnt all that well. There was only one part of the day that was really worth recalling, that would be the part where he went to the bar, namely, the part at the bar where a strange boy beat the living crap out of some bandits. He remembered very little about the bandits, they had lost the fight and were therefore, not worth remembering. But the boy who took them down, he was really worth remembering, he had done something that definitely should not have happened. Jack considered himself to be a brave man, but he didn't draw the dagger under his own coat, but some little kid had upstaged him by taking those bandits to the floor.

Jack remembered everything about him, the green clothes, the brown boots, the sword and shield worn on the back rather than the hip, the girlfriend whose knife he had borrowed. And his name, Jack had never heard someone with that name before. Link, of all the odd names he had heard in his time, Link was not one of them, until the kid had been asked and said it right in front of him. Jack knew he would remember that boy, he wanted to meet him again sometime, he wanted to know who that child was, because he knew that one day that boy was going to be important.

He looked over at the wall of his bedroom, there on a wooden plaque, hung a sword. It was very finely made, steel blade with a full tang into a silver hilt, with leather wrapped around the handle and a sheath made of polished mahogany wood. He wondered if one day he would get his act together and do something like what that kid did. He had to do something heroic. He had the power, he had the will, but he did not use them, there was something missing, something missing that he wanted badly.

Courage.

That was what the boy had that he did not. He stood up and walked over to the wall, pulling the sword down from the plaque and then out of its sheath. The blade shone in the moonlight streaming down through the window, the brilliance of it stunned him and reminded him of the first time he had held it more than five years before. He could feel the power in his hands, the power to take or give as he pleased, and at that moment he made a silent vow to himself to never take again. If that little boy could do something amazing than there was no reason he could not. There were no more excuses; he was going to do the right thing. Sleep was forgotten as he took the sheath and wove his belt through it, and then quickly put his boots on and a cloak over his dark grey tunic. In the silvery moonbeams he quickly made his preparations, then walked outside to his horse. He didn't have an opportunity at the moment to perform a random act of heroism, but he did have a not so random opportunity that he had been debating with himself for months. Now that he had made his decision, he knew exactly where to go.

His destination was a house, that house was near the gates of Hyrule castle, and he knew a girl that lived in that house. He also knew her father and what he did to her, and now he was going to take action, he was going to do something about it. As he mounted his horse, he checked the pouch at his side and made sure he had the money he needed for food and shelter while he was there. Then, satisfied with his preparations, he grabbed the reins and rode of into the night, ready to be a hero…

((()))

… His face was numb. That was the first thing that Link could feel as he began to awake, the second thing he felt was that the rest of his body was numb too, though not quite as much as his face. As he began to sit up he noticed a foul taste in the back of his throat and coldness in his feet. As he opened his bleary eyes and blinked a few times to clear his vision, he saw why his feet felt so cold, it was because they were in a thin layer of snow. So was everything else in the alcove. Sophia actually had snow on her face and on top of her head, apparently her blue tunic worked better than she would have had him believe. As Link rose to his feet he saw Sophia's eyes open and most of the powder drifted off her face. Her first motion was to get the rest of the snow off of her head and neck and then she got to her feet. Link had only gotten snow on his boots since he had been covered by a blanket. He stood and then shook his feet to clear the snow off them.

"Temperature fluctuation is common at this altitude; the snow will be gone before noon, you can hang on to the blanket for a while if you want" Sophia said while picking up a handful of the powder as if to inspect it. She looked at the snow for a second and Link wondered what could be so special about it, he didn't think there could be anything different about the texture of snow. After a few seconds she put the handful of snow back on the ground and then stepped out of the alcove, Link followed directly behind her and Navi dropped out of the sky almost immediately. Link already saw it coming but Sophia hadn't been expecting it, Navi suddenly filled her field of view about a foot away from her face and she shouted in surprise, jumped backwards, and drew her knife, all simultaneously in a well calculated maneuver.

"Shit, don't do that" Sophia growled angrily. Navi feigned innocence but Link knew she had every intention of scaring her. Link just shot the fairy an angry look and then helped Sophia to her feet. Navi continued to feign innocence and went back under Link's cap before he could say anything about it.

Sophia looked up at the mountain and then back behind them, then, she unexpectedly walked over to the cliff wall to the left of where they were trying to go and rubbed her hand back and forth across it. After a few seconds of rubbing the rock-face she smiled and grabbed her pack out of the alcove, Link picked up all of his equipment and put his sword bandolier back on, then helped Sophia with her pack, Link could hardly lift the thing up and had no idea how the girl who was actually a little smaller than he was could have possibly carried it all the way up the mountain on her back.

"Why were you rubbing the cliffs?" Link asked. He was more interested in knowing because it seemed like something that may have become more important later rather than out of simple curiosity, it seemed to be a bit of ingenuity that Sophia was proud of.

"I was trying to figure out if the final cliff wall would be safe to climb, since there was snow on the ground it was entirely possible that there would be ice on the cliffs, if that was the case then we would have to wait until this afternoon for the ice to melt, fortunately that is not the case and we can continue straight to the Goron city." Sophia explained. Link nodded and he heard a small sound of approval come from beneath his hat, Navi was beginning to accept his decision of travelling with Sophia.

The cold temperatures were bitter, Link was glad for Sophia letting him hold onto her blanket for a while longer and had it wrapped tightly around his shoulders, arms, and torso as he walked, he could feel the icy cold of the steel bolts in his sword sheath and shield pressing against his back. After only a few minutes of walking up the mountain path, he did notice a reasonable increase in temperature, but it was still way too cold for his liking. After only a short walk though they reached the base of the final cliff, Sophia looked it over from top to bottom and gauged it, calculating its slope and danger in only a few short moments, Link looked it over and couldn't help but be impressed by its size, it was no wonder that they said it was the most difficult of the cliffs, it was more than a hundred and fifty feet high and almost vertical ninety degrees, with the biggest handholds no larger than an apple and the smallest being the size of a coin.

"Follow my path, and try to use the same handholds as I do, this slope is going to be dangerous." Sophia warned, she pulled a pair of fingerless gloves out of her pack and put them on, and then used things that looked like extremely sharp spear points that clipped onto the toes of her boots, she finally pulled a small and sharp looking pickaxe out and used it to make an existing handhold bigger before continuing to climb. Link followed behind her and used the same hand and foot holds as she had used or made with her pick. He didn't bother drawing his sword, if he encountered one of the cliff vipers like they had run into earlier there was no way he could effectively fight it without falling, it wasn't all that likely that a cliff viper would be on a cliff like this either, too steep even for them, they like the cliffs that looked more like rock piles and were slightly easier for prey to climb.

Even without the threat of cliff vipers, it still took a long time to climb the steep slope, just under half an hour passed before they reached the top. Once they were over the top they took a break for just a few minutes before continuing their trek towards the Goron city. By now the snow had turned into slush as the rising temperatures brought by the day melted the thin layer of powder that had been an obstacle while climbing, but had quickly become more of an annoyance due to its tendency to suck on their boots and make walking a little bit more of an effort. Eventually though the snow melted enough that the water was actually flowing down the path behind them and after another half hour it was almost gone completely, the only evidence the snow had ever existed being the puddles of water on the path as they neared the Goron city.

It didn't take long to get there once the slush was gone; they covered the last mile or so in a little less than twenty minutes at a leisurely walking pace and reached the thick stone gates well before noon. Link walked up to the gates and tried to peek through the cracks between them. Link couldn't see anything on the other side, but he could feel a mood of sadness and regret coming from within the mountain, he didn't need to see to know what was on the other side. Sadness, anger, emotion, many things that would make his job a lot more difficult. Link stood there for a moment, unmoving, considering his options, which was when Sophia took the initiative and knocked. The sound of her gloved fist pounding on the stone gate seemed to echo for miles and there seemed to be a sort of finality about it. There was no response, Link continued to wait for a few moments and then after about half a minute the gates slowly opened just wide enough to allow Link and Sophia passage to the other side.

Link had heard a lot about the Goron city, and it looked nothing like what he had been told he would see. He had heard tales of a brightly lit city within the mountain, where men of stone constantly danced and sang and made merry. What he saw was a great cavern full of dimmed torches and depressed Gorons, they sat around, seemed to do nothing, one was trying to eat a handful of pebbles but could only hold down a few at a time. Link and Sophia looked around the inside of the city, shocked at the drastic change from what they had been told to expect.

Finally, Link decided to get back on task and looked around for anything that looked like a spiritual stone of fire, he looked around several times but it was quite evident that the spiritual stone of fire was nowhere in sight, so Link did the next best thing, he turned to the nearest Goron and asked.

"I was wondering, where may I find the spiritual stone of fire?" Link asked. He hadn't expected to get an answer as to where it was, but he did, the Goron eyed him warily, and then pointed down towards a closed door on the bottom level of the Goron city. Link immediately began to look for a way down, it wasn't going to be easy since the cavern was a massive circle, with four onion-like tiers going from top to bottom, with the bottom being the smallest and the top being the largest, each tier was ten feet above the one below and then the cavern ceiling was thirty feet above the top tier, but the cavern was also almost a quarter mile across, so far that details on the other side were difficult to make out. The stairs weren't placed next to each other either; it would have been at least a mile of walking in half circles to get down there. But then, Link got an idea he took two steps forward, and then jumped down to the next tier, it was only ten feet so he just flexed his knees upon landing and turned, beckoning Sophia down. Sophia smiled at his ingenuity and then tossed down her pack before jumping down in the same fashion. Another ten steps forward and then another ten foot jump down to the third tier, another ten steps, then another ten feet down to the final tier. The tiers decreased in diameter by about fifty feet per tier so while the top tier had been a quarter mile across the bottom one was only about eight hundred feet. The door that the Goron on the top tier had pointed to was about three hundred feet away from where they entered the bottom tier and the two made their way over to it.

The door was made out of solid stone, just like the gates to the Goron city, except the doors had the symbol of the Goron people hewn out of it and colored in crimson red, giving the feeling that there was something very important on the other side of that door. Link knocked and waited for a few moments, but when it was evident there was to be no response; Link began to look for an alternative way through. There was no door handle and the door must have weighed more than half a ton anyways so it wouldn't have helped if there was. Then he spotted the sign to the left of the door, it appeared to have been placed there recently and Link quickly read it.

_My door will only open for the messenger of the royal family_

Link wondered what the sign meant and how he was supposed to get through the door. He remembered the song that Impa had taught him, the song of the royal family, something that only they knew, she had said it would be a way to prove his connection to them, he figured it was worth a shot at the very least and pulled out his ocarina, he quickly played through the song in his head before actually playing it out loud. The calming sound of the ocarina seemed to penetrate the air of sorrow that filled the Goron city and for a moment the mood of the chamber seemed to brighten, but the moment he finished playing the air of depression returned to the chamber and everything seemed to dim again.

The door opened though, at least there was a bit of good news. On the other side of the door was a dark corridor that ended in a brightly lit chamber. Link almost felt as if that were the source of all the depression, it seemed like waves of sorrow were emanating from that final room. Link cautiously began to walk into the hallway with Sophia close behind. They moved slowly, ready for anything ahead, Link's hand drifted upwards towards his sword, Sophia unclipped the safety strap on her knife and prepared for whatever waited in the room ahead. When they finally reached it though, they realized they had nothing to fear, the room at the end of the tunnel was a plain room with an ancient looking statue of a Goron at the back holding a spear, in front of that statue was a much more real Goron.

And he looked mad.


	11. The King of the Mountain

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 11: King of the Mountain

"Who are you, what are you doing here, surely you cannot be a messenger of the royal family, has the king grown to despise me so, that he would dare…!"

It didn't take much for Link to get that the Goron king, Darunia, was definitely in a pretty bad mood. Link opened his mouth to talk and the Goron at least gave him the courtesy of letting him speak.

"No, I'm no messenger; I am here on an urgent quest from princess Zelda herself." Link said, Darunia looked at him quizzically, as if he couldn't comprehend what Link had just said. Then the Goron king unexpectedly gave a little shadow of a grin at the statement, as a matter of fact, the Goron almost burst out laughing at this, but a sadness hidden behind his eyes kept everything but a depressed smile from showing on the Goron elder.

"A quest? You? I would laugh but right now we Gorons are in troubling times, I have no time for your humor" Darunia said, Sophia took the opportunity to step into the conversation and keep it moving in the direction that it needed to go.

"It is true; we have come because we need the spiritual stone of fire." Sophia stated, something clicked in the Goron's mind when she mentioned the spiritual stone and he took an angry step forward.

"You want the stone as well?" Darunia shouted. Link nodded slowly and this time it was Navi that came forward to support him, she fluttered out from under his hat and hovered a few feet away from Darunia. It appeared that the Goron elder had never seen a fairy before because he spent several seconds just looking at the fairy with a sort of stupefied interest, so amazed by the tiny fairy that he wasn't even comprehending of anything else for several moments, till Navi spoke and the mountain king was brought back into the reality of his throne room.

"Yes, we just climbed a mountain to get here" Navi explained. Darunia looked at Link and Sophia, then back at Navi, then he thought for a few moments more before continuing to address them.

"Not so difficult for one like you who can fly, but these two little hylians…" Darunia started, he looked back over at Link and Sophia, laden with equipment and covered in scrapes and bruises from climbing the cliffs to get to the Goron city, Link knew they must have looked pitiful to a being as physically imposing and powerful as the king of the Gorons.

"You must truly desire that which I possess to have made such a journey." He finished. Link spoke up again, this time addressing something the Goron had said rather than something he wanted from him.

"Earlier you said we wanted it_as well,_someone else wanted it?" Link asked. For a moment a look of anger crossed the king's face, then he returned to the situation and looked down at Link. Speaking in a booming, angry voice, he briefly explained the trouble of the Goron people.

"The king of the desert thieves brought his foulness into my dominion, he unleashed the ancient Dodongos and we had to seal off the cavern to protect the world from the ancient monsters of hell. I saw through his lies, he offered to destroy the monsters in exchange for the stone, I told him to clean up the mess he made and then we would negotiate." Darunia stated, seeming slightly proud of himself for the punch line he had used against the Gerudo thief. Link only needed to think for a second before figuring out a way to use that to his advantage, he quickly figured out what he was going to say, then said it in a slightly overconfident sounding voice.

"What if we cleaned up the mess he made?" Link asked, making sure he sounded proud as the Goron had when he had been speaking; the Goron just looked down at him with a funny grin, as if he were amused by the idea.

"Ha, a little boy like you, a fairy, and a girl, against the Dodongos. I am sorry young one, but it would appear you overestimate your chances." Darunia laughed. Link just continued to look up at him with an air of confidence surrounding him, he had already won the conversation, and his reward was going to be a trip into the bowels of the earth to kill a bunch of dinosaurs, not exactly the kind of reward most people had in mind, but keeping in mind that the reward for doing it would be the spiritual stone of fire, Link figured it was worth the risk

"And what if it is you that underestimates their weakness?" Link asked, Darunia thought about this for a second, then, figuring he had nothing to lose if Link failed, responded in exactly the way Link had hoped he would.

"then my people will have back their food supply, and you will have the spiritual stone" Darunia stated, as he said this he opened a small stone box resting on the ground next to him and produced a glowing ruby, circled by a gold stamping of the insignia of the Gorons. The stone generated its own light and filled the throne room with a bright red glow as would molten rock, Link could feel the power of the spiritual stone, resonating, calling to its sister less than three feet away in the pouch hanging at his side. Link was mesmerized momentarily by the beauty of the stone, and then replied to the Goron king, turning towards the door to the throne room.

"Show me where to start"

((()))

"Knights, gather!"

Their commander didn't use codes or cryptic sayings, when he wanted a council of his knights, he said it in the shortest and most straightforward way he could. So when he walked into the quarters of the 45th dragoon, his intention would be easily understood by all. Of the hundred soldiers taking break in the room eight rose and grabbed their sword-belts on the way out the door, they didn't bother with their armor since they were not yet in a time of war, but from the voice of the commander, they could tell that soon they would have need of it.

The guard quarters were bright and cheery and well lit, but the rest of the under levels of the inner castle were far different. Grey granite walls made black by moisture, puddles on the floor, only an occasional torch and an eerie ambient light to lead the way. The knights knew that there was trouble when they went down a stairway rather than up. Even though they had sensed it in Commander Lector's voice, they hadn't known that it would be such an important matter that they would actually need to descend further into the bowels of the earth just to keep any matter they discussed a secret from the surface. They were quite literally 'burying' their secrets. They descended down to the second lowest level, they would have gone lower if they could but the lowest level hadn't been pumped in years and was currently knee deep in black water, swarming with snakes and leeches. This far down was an area rarely visited, people didn't come this far underground without a damned good reason, and the occupants of the inner castle usually never had a damned good reason for anything, much less descending into the depths of an old crypt.

They proceeded all the way to the furthest room in B-8 from the stairwell, the most secret room in the castle not full of water, anything said in that room had a good chance of not being said outside of it. It didn't take long for the knights to realize that this meeting had been planned in advance. Though the room was ancient and musty, a brand new conference table and several dozen chairs occupied the room. They weren't alone either; the knights and captains of four other companies were already seated, waiting for Commander Lector to explain why he had brought them so far into the castle's depths.

"Take your seats, masters." Lector commanded, even though almost everyone was already seated. He waited for the last knight to take his seat, and then began to speak.

"I know most of you must be wondering why you have been summoned to this god-awful place and why such intense means of security have been taken to ensure what I say is kept secret, but I will explain it all to you now." Lector began. The knights seated around the table leaned in closer, as if they expected their commander to say what was going to be said in the tiniest of whispers. Lector leaned forward as well and after a few moments of such quiet that you could hear the breathing of everyone huddled around the small table, he spoke.

"I have discovered a plot against the kingdom of Hyrule, by none other than Gannondorf Dragmire, king of the Gerudo" Lector stated. A mixture of reactions followed, some believed him and some did not, most seemed to be unsure. The first person to question him spoke after only a few moments.

"How is it that you have come across this plot?" a knight at the back of the room asked. Heads turned to see a middle aged man with a short black beard and medium length hair of the same color standing at the back of the room with his arms crossed over his chest, wearing shining silver armor, with an ancient broadsword of the old order hanging at his side. He stepped forward into the dim torchlight and was immediately recognized by those around him.

His name was Rackham. He was a little more than forty years old and had once been an even higher rank than Lector, until his luck caught up with him during the war. Only a little more than a decade ago he had led a hundred and fifty knights into the Hylius Gap, only fifteen survived. It didn't matter that for every Hylian that had died in that valley, ten enemies had fallen as well. All that was remembered was that he was the commander who lost one hundred and thirty five men. The knights around him knew better than that, he was a hero, but those outside of the small Hylian army saw things differently. In the end, majority rules.

"A simple trick really, there are framed pictures on the walls of the room reserved for Gannondorf. One of my men was ordered to remove a brick from the wall between Gannondorf's room and his own behind one of these pictures, then write down everything he heard." Lector explained. Rackham nodded for Lector to continue on with his speech. Lector cleared his throat and then once again began to speak.

"We don't have enough solid information to convince the king, nothing we can prove perhaps. But what we do know is that in the time since Gannondorf entered the castle, more than five hundred Gerudo have entered the city and seemingly disappeared, there is now no trace of them within the city walls but we are sure they did not leave. Even if they used some sort of ancient magic to warp out of the city as well, the use of magic strong enough to make five hundred people warp half way across Hyrule would be detectable by even the most amateur magician. The conclusion is that this small army of Gerudo warriors is hidden somewhere within castle town." Lector continued. This time a different knight spoke up.

"Well, if that's the case, we could always just increase the guard around the inner castle. If there are only five hundred Gerudo in castle town, they may be able to take the outer castle, but the inner castle would easily be able to withstand so small an army."

"True. If the entire Gerudo force were five hundred warriors, than we would have no need to worry. But that is not their plan. The five hundred warriors is a token force, nothing more. Their only purpose is to open the gates of the outer castle. Once the outer castle gates are open, five _thousand_ Gerudos will be ready to launch a siege of the inner castle, even if our entire army was here and prepared for battle, those would be steep odds. With two castle walls between us and them, we may have had a chance, but with only one, the battle will not last a day." Lector finished.

"We could recall the entire army. Place a thousand soldiers at the gates to the outer castle and a thousand in the inner castle. That way the token force will have no chance to open the gates and allow a larger army though."

"That won't work either. I'm not talking about something that's going to happen in a week or two. The treaty between the hylians and the Gerudo will be writ in steel, and signed in royal blood." Lector said in a low voice. A few of the knights gathered around the table seemed to understand what he was trying to say, but the majority did not.

"What are you saying?" a soldier seated along the right side of the table asked. Lector looked at him sadly, mournfully even, and then spoke.

"The battle I have just described will occur in seventeen hours."

((()))

"Something tells me this is going to suck, a lot" Sophia stated as Darunia and two other Gorons pushed aside the massive stone boulder blocking the connecting tunnel between Goron city and the Dodongos cavern. As the boulder was pushed aside, a wave of scouring heat poured out of the cavern, as if the great stone had been the cork to a massive bottle of fire. Link felt the skin on his face tighten as it contracted in the heat.

"Sure you don't have any of those red tunics lying around?" Link asked. Darunia shook his head no.

"Those damned Gerudo thieves stole them on their way out; I guess they weren't interested in letting us get any Hylian help. It will take time to make more, time than neither of us have. Don't worry; you would only need it if you were getting very close to the river of fire." Darunia stated while pushing the stone just far enough to let Link and Sophia walk through one at a time.

"Our store room of bombs is down at the end of this passage on the right side. Take as many as you can carry, it will only take one to destroy this stone on your way out. We will be closing this door after you are through so the Dodongos cannot get out." Darunia explained. Link nodded respectfully before turning towards the roughly hewn stone corridor descending deep into the mountain. He drew his sword and pulled the steel shield bearing the crest of Hyrule off his back. It still felt heavy but not as much as it had before when he had first gotten it.

"Your adventure has made you stronger, I hope for your good fortune in the battle that awaits you below, so you can be made stronger again." Darunia said. Link didn't turn to acknowledge this, as he was already halfway into the dimly lit tunnel beyond, but he hoped the Goron leader was right. He didn't want to die, but if he had to choose than the last place he would want it to be would be the depths of an active volcano, where he would be mummified by the heat and eventually wither away into nothingness. He knew there was no turning back now that he had entered the darkness and he knew even if he could he would not. There was too much at stake relying on his success for him to back out. If he didn't go into the darkness than he would be cursed by the memory of the people he had forsaken forever. He had to do this, whether he liked it or not.

Sophia followed close behind him, but before she made it though the gap between the boulder and the cliff wall, a hand of stone closed around her shoulder. She looked up and saw the towering figure of Darunia, with a look of caution on his face.

"I should warn you one last time, though I have already said it before, the depth of the earth is no place for a girl, no matter how strong she may be. You should stay here where it is safe and await his return." Darunia said. Sophia just grinned and shook her head as if he had made a joke of some kind. Then she removed his hand from her shoulder and turned to face him.

"Your highness, respectfully, you could not drag me away." Sophia said, before following Link into the darkness beyond. Darunia stepped out of her way and let her pass into the dim red glow beyond. He watched for a few seconds as their silhouettes quickly disappeared into the darkness. Then he slowly circled around to the far side of the stone and pushed it back into place, sealing the two children in the depths of the earth. Darunia had been trying to avoid using that word to describe them in his thoughts and words, because it made everything he was saying and doing, and allowing them to do for that matter, so much worse. They were only children; they shouldn't have had to do what they were doing. Yet, he hadn't asked them, they had simply asked him to open the way, anything in exchange for the spiritual stone. Justification, to a certain degree at least, but Darunia still found himself begging forgiveness to the gods for what he had done, there was no excuse, what he had done was wrong, and if either of those children were killed in the process of completing their mission, it would be he who bore the blame for it, and rightfully so, it would be his fault if they died.

((()))

The darkness seemed to get thicker the moment the thick boulder slid into place behind them. Claustrophobia was a big enemy of the kokiri, and one of the reasons they never went underground. Even though the ceiling was at least four feet above them and the tube was more than fifteen feet wide, it still felt too narrow, too confined. It was because the ceiling was not the real ceiling. The ceiling was how far they could see, and even in the dim light that Navi gave them, it wasn't very far, in any direction, just enough to see the floor about five feet in front of them. It was so dark; they almost missed the doorway to the storage room that Darunia had been talking about.

"Wait, there!" Sophia said while pointing to her right. It had been luck that she was looking in the right direction at the right moment, but she saw a dim flicker of candle light reflected in the obsidian wall of a roughly cut doorway. Link wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but it certainly was not what he actually found.

Bombs, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them, all packed into crates of twenty and stacked in stacks of three. There were at least ninety crates, that would total something like one thousand eight hundred bombs, an impossible amount of fire power to fit into one room. Over a ton of pure firepower packed into wooden crates and hidden inside an active volcano, Link found himself questioning the intelligence of the Goron who came up with the idea; then again, there must have been two hundred feet of solid rock between the storeroom and the Goron city. Two hundred feet of rock would be a virtually impenetrable barrier for firepower of _any_magnitude.

"Get what you need and get out, I don't feel like getting blown up today." Navi stated as they entered the room. Link quickly went over to the nearest crate and warily lifted the lid. Inside were twenty neatly arranged bombs. Link carefully grabbed one and inspected it, it was spherical, roughly the size of an apple, painted dark blue with a short fuse which had a white cap at the end. Link didn't need to be told to know that if he pulled off the cap someone was going to have a very bad day, and it would likely be everyone within a few hundred feet of that room. Link continued to look at the bomb for a few seconds, trying to comprehend the firepower that he held in his hand, before he put it in the pouch at his side and grabbed a few more. He emptied the crate, putting all of the high explosives safely tucked away in the pouch at his side until there were none left to take, then he quickly left the room full of bombs, glad to be moving away from the massive repository of explosives that seemed as if it were almost waiting to blow him or someone else away.

The tunnel continued down for a long ways, gradually the reddish white light began to grow stronger the further down they went. Link was not sure how far down they had gone but according to Sophia who had judge by the distance and the slope, they had lost a mile of altitude and had walked about four miles into the underground labyrinth before they even reached the cavern. They saw the lava at about they same time they reached the main chamber, docks made out of steel that glowed in the heat of the molten rock extended out into a lake of fire. Link felt the heat increase drastically as they entered that main chamber and felt the chill at the back of his neck as a cold sweat took over, his body's futile attempt to defeat the crushing heat.

"Let's get this done fast. The king Dodongo should be at the lowest chamber, so if we continue going straight down hill we should find it." Sophia said she reached under her arm and unclipped her knife, drawing it and holding it in a combat ready position at her side. Link continued to hold the lead with his sword and shield out, ready for anything, and Navi hovered between him and Sophia.

"Wasn't this place supposed to be full of monsters?" Link asked.

"It was, but they're hiding, they're afraid" Sophia replied.

"Afraid of what?" Link asked.

"Us" Sophia replied as if it were an obvious fact. "I doubt they've ever seen a Hylian before, we're new to them, confusing and mysterious."

"Well, let's hope it stays that way, I like my face arranged in its current manner, thank you very much." Link laughed sarcastically. They carefully crossed the chamber, circling around the lake of molten rock and giving it a wide berth, Sophia probably could have gotten close with the tunic on but it wouldn't be safe anyways whether or not it was doable. They stayed as close to the wall as possible as they circled the chamber and reached a charred wooden door on the other side. Link pushed it open on rusty hinges that groaned the with stress against many years of weathering in the heat of the underground.

The second room was treacherous, Link could already see that crossing it was going to be a pain. The entire room was literally overflowing with molten rock, only a series of islands with rope bridges connected the two doors at either side of the room. And as if that wasn't enough, the room was occupied by two of the meanest looking creatures that Link had ever seen. They looked like lizards, but they walked on two legs like mortals and held saber swords that Link could tell from across the room were going to be razor sharp.

Link and Sophia were fortunate, both of the lizafos were looking the other way, they could sneak up behind them without being noticed. Sophia crouched low and assumed a stance for a kind of attack that Link had only heard about briefly once, an assassination. She pointed at herself and then the one on the right, then at Link and the one on the left. The meaning was obvious; they would both kill one at the same time, neutralizing the entire enemy force in the room before the battle even started.

They did their best to be quiet crossing the narrow rope bridges and it worked, the Dodongos didn't hear them, it was when they began to get closer that the problem happened. Sophia was the one who made the mistake. She looked at the lizafos's sword; saw the reflection of its face. It felt her eyes on it and looked down; it saw her reflection in the blade of the sword. She lunged forward at it, trying to get it before it was too late, but it was too late before she even jumped, and before she could take action, she was hit with a fist that was more akin to a battering ram than a body part. The other Dodongos had begun to turn and Link knew better than to lunge at it. Instead Link picked a much easier target, the Dodongos who had just punched Sophia with the force of a battering ram. Link swung his sword upwards to his right with the full intention of cutting off the Dodongos arm. He partially succeeded. He only cut the arm open, but didn't actually remove it. Still, it was enough to piss off the lizafos. The lizafos stumbled backwards at first but charged forward while green blood still sprayed from his arm.

The second lizafos considered assisting the injured one in taking care of Link, but had second thoughts when he saw Sophia roll over and begin crawling towards her knife. The Lizafos leapt forward before Sophia could recover her weapon and its long thick nails cut into her throat as it grabbed her in a chokehold. Sophia felt her strength leave as the reptilian hands clinched tighter around her throat and constricted her airway. She reached desperately for the knife but it was too far away. She looked for an alternative weapon and found one, the sword that was now in the lizafos's sheath. It was going to be a long way to reach but she was pretty sure she could reach it, if nothing else it was her only option. She knew she was running out of time in any event and trying couldn't hurt. She reached down, trying to find the hilt of the sword. The lizafos saw what Sophia was trying to do and grabbed his sword before she could, he then drew it. She felt the blood leaking out of the holes in her neck from where the demon's claws had cut into her throat. She felt it running down her neck and onto its hands, heard it drip onto the rock beneath her. She felt the despair and began to embrace the horrible truth, she was very sure that she was about to die.

"You want this?" the lizafos taunted while slowly drawing the sword, as if he savored the sound of steel sliding over steel in its sheath. It held the sword up to the light, admiring its angry red glow in the light of the river of fire. Then it pressed the sword against the side of her neck, pressing the blade against her skin until it began to cut. Before the weapon sliced deep enough into her throat to hit anything important though, the monster seemed to have second thoughts or something. It pulled the sword away and then lifted her to her feet, then off the ground by her neck.

"I would rather see how long that Goron tunic keeps you alive in the river" it laughed while carrying her by the neck to the edge of the island. That was as far as it had gotten though before a blue ball of light slammed into the side of its head. It turned angrily in the direction the fairy had come from, and the last thing it saw was its partner's sword spiraling through the air towards its face.

While Sophia had been fighting for her life against the one lizafos, Link had been dueling with the one with the injured arm. Link had performed a maneuver that he had perfected in years of playing tag in the forest, he had waited until the last possible second when he was right on the edge of the island to dodge to the side and the lizafos had lost it's balance, Link gave it a little bit of encouragement with his right foot and then it dropped it's sword as it fell into the lava. Link had picked up its sword and saw that Sophia had about half a second before she was dropped in the pit.

Link took action; he dropped his shield and simultaneously picked up the sword of the dead lizafos, which he then threw across the island. The steel blade twirled through the air, sparkling in the firelight, before burying itself in the skull of the lizafos. Sophia wasn't out of danger yet though, not surprisingly she had already begun to lose consciousness from the lack of oxygen and momentarily was not able to stand on her own. She began tottering backwards on the edge of the island, grasping at the air in front of her for something to grab onto, but there was nothing there and she felt herself tipping backwards towards the pit of molten rock.

At the last moment, when she was leaning backwards at almost 45 degrees, Link charged in and grabbed her by the shoulder, yanking her back onto the island where they landed in a heap on top of the lizafos with the sword stuck in its head. Already it had begun to disappear in the blue fire that absorbed all the monsters they had ever killed. They got up and moved away from the flames to keep from getting burned, even though they weren't sure if the magical fires that consumed the bodies of monsters could even burn a living thing, it was better to not find out.

Link got up and Sophia remained on the ground for almost a full minute, coughing up blood and puking on the floor, Link asked if she needed help twice but she refused both times and he maintained a respectful distance after that. Once Sophia had gotten everything out of her system she shakily rose to her feet and picked up her knife where it had fallen during the battle. She returned it to the sheath under her left arm and spied the fallen lizafos's sword. She picked up the monster's weapon and spun it around a few times to test the weight. It was a pretty basic design, a straight handle and blade with a short crossbar in-between. The weight was focused in the tip and that made it somewhat clumsy for her fighting style, but another battle like the one they had just had would not be something she would survive without a better primary weapon. She took the enemy's weapon and tucked it into her belt, then on a silent acknowledgement they both began their journey deeper into the interior of the mountain.

Link continued to lead the way with his sword and shield drawn, just in case they ran into anything, and while Sophia didn't have her weapons out, she had her hand on the hilt of her sword and was ready to draw it on a moment's notice. One thing was for sure though as they entered the next room, they could not afford any battles like the one they had just had.

The second room was also part of the downward slope towards the lower section of the cavern. It was about half the size of the previous room with a much greater slope towards the far side, where a single door allowed passage into the chambers beyond. The ceiling was high like a cathedral and the only source of light was a small pond of molten rock on the left side of the room, which cast a hellish red glow over everything in sight.

Link took two steps into the room with Sophia directly behind him before everything went wrong. He heard a noise to his left, like someone sucking in a deep breath. He looked over and barely had time to grab Sophia and throw her out of the way while raising his own shield before the world turned to flame.


	12. The Fire Within

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 12: The Fire Within

Link grabbed Sophia roughly by the arm and threw her forward and out of relative danger whilst lifting his own shield to defend himself. A moment later a spray of flaming juice that stuck to his shield and arm shot towards him and he did his best to defend himself with the metal shield. Still, he felt some of the fire get around it and without even looking he could tell that the right sleeve of his tunic was on fire. The blast wave from the fireball knocked him backwards almost fifteen feet and his sword ended up on floor somewhere along the way. Before even getting to his feet Link began slapping at his right arm, desperately trying to put out the flame that was rapidly growing to engulf the entire limb. He could feel the skin of his right shoulder beginning to peel and turn to leather in the heat, he needed a better idea. He remembered the water he had gotten while they were still in Kakariko village, he reached down into the pouch at his side and pulled out the bottle of clear blue water, which he proceeded to smash against his arm, not bothering with the cork, he could buy a new bottle later but an arm was impossible to replace. He winced as fragments of glass buried themselves deep in his arm and blood spurted out of one of the wounds.

Sophia had by this point recovered from the shove Link had given her out of the line of fire. It was a noble effort on his part but he should have been more worried about himself, Sophia's tunic would absorb the fire much better than his because of its fire resistant properties. She drew the stolen lizafos sword that hung at her side and leapt at the source of the fireball and namesake of the cavern, a Dodongo. It wasn't the king they were looking for, but it was a pretty good sized one none the less, about fifteen feet long with bony plates of armor and thick scaly skin protecting it from the heat of the cavern. That was going to make fighting it difficult because it could resist almost any attack they could use on it from the outside. The only vulnerable spot that Link could see was the mouth and the problem with attacking the mouth was that it was where the fire came from. Sophia leapt at the ancient monster but he attacks against its exterior did almost nothing to harm it, her sword sparked off its armor plates as if she had attacked the side of a brick house.

At about this time, Link got an idea, he was getting to his feet, trying to ignore the pain growing in his arm as the burnt nerve endings slowly came back to life. He reached down in the pouch at his side and grabbed one of the bombs. He had already dropped his shield and his sword was missing somewhere on the floor of the room, but he had the weapon he needed right there in his hand. The Dodongo had to open its mouth really wide to suck in enough air to breathe fire, wide enough, Link hoped, for him to shove a bomb down its throat. Link ran at the Dodongo while Sophia continued to try attacking it with her sword to no avail.

"Hey, ugly!" Link shouted at the Dodongo as he ran at it, pulling the fuse-cap on the bomb when he was about fifteen feet away. The Dodongo turned towards him and began to suck in another breath to attack again, but Link had been expecting this, and hoping for it. He threw the activated bomb into the Dodongos mouth and then jumped over the Dodongos head. He landed on the armor plates about halfway back off the end of the monster and then rolled off to the side, sending a fresh wave of pain up his arm. A moment later, the dinosaur's head exploded in a great fireball and plume of shrapnel. Luckily, Link and Sophia had both been behind the Dodongo when the bomb when off, and the armored body became a shield of sorts that protected them from the detonation.

The duo rose to their feet in the aftermath of the explosion and inspected the damage. The head and shoulders of the Dodongo along with a segment of its underbelly had been vaporized. Thick green blood oozed out of the destroyed monster and Link coughed into his glove, trying not to puke at the sight.

It was Sophia this time who realized when something was going wrong. The Dodongo was not disappearing in blue flame the way other monsters did when they died. This time she was the one who grabbed Link and threw him away, this time from a corpse. The body had begun to take on a reddish glow and by the time Link hit the floor it was cherry it color. A moment later it exploded. Dazzling fireballs shot in all directions as the highly flammable fluid that coated the inside of the monster's lungs and filled its veins exploded.

There was nothing left; the heat of the explosion had incinerated the body of the land-dragon. Only a few bony armor plates remained. Link spotted his sword and shield and picked them up. Both were hot to the touch but not enough to burn him. That was when he began to wonder how hot it really was in the cavern, well above a hundred degrees definitely, likely something like a hundred and thirty was his best guess, there was nowhere for the heat of the molten rock to go so it was expected that all that heat would be coming back at them. However hot it was, Link didn't want to take much more of it, he planned on taking care of the King Dodongo quickly and then getting back outside where it was cool. He put his sword and shield away and then quickly made his way to the far side of the room. Before they reached the other side though, Sophia stopped him.

"We need to take a break for a minute; we need to treat your arm and my neck, no good for us both to run through this hell injured like we are." Sophia said. Link didn't like the idea of slowing down but had to admit that she was right; if the injuries were treated they stood a much better chance of getting out alive. Sophia took off her pack and seemed relieved to get the weight off her back. She had left a few things behind at the Goron city but there was still forty pounds of stuff in the pack and that was a lot more than Link would have wanted to carry for the distance they were going. She opened the pack and pulled out some rolled bandages and some small bottles of red potion. Link remembered the potion from when Malon had treated the injuries he got from the stalchildren, it would speed up the healing process by fifty times according to her, the wound on his shoulder would be healed by the end of the day at that rate.

Sophia took a pair of tweezers from the small medical kit she had brought with her and first focused on getting the glass out of the wound on Link's shoulder. Most of the glass hadn't done too much damage, but apparently one shard had gone into a vein deep inside his shoulder, when she pulled it out a trickle of blood ran down Link's arm and began to drip onto the floor. Sophia quickly wrapped the wound with one of the bandages and the bandage quickly gained a red tint from the blood seeping into it. Once Link's burn was bandaged Sophia handed over the kit. Her neck had actually begun to look worse in the time since they had gone into the cavern and Link was actually pretty sure his would too if he could see it, inhaling the smoke and chemicals given off by the lava couldn't be a good thing and they had been doing that for about half an hour. Link quickly wrapped a bandage around her neck before handing her one of the potions. Sophia gulped down the potion and immediately some of the bruising around her throat began to fade, but the redness stayed rebelliously in spite of the potion.

Once they had finished treating each other's injuries they put the stuff back in Sophia's pack and then got to their feet and continued their journey. Some of the pain began to subside in Link's arm as they continued, but he knew it would still be there for at least the rest of the day if not longer, they had just done a quick job of fixing his wound in the cavern and it would likely take a professional surgeon to take out all of the glass and charred flesh.

This time they both walked side by side rather than single file and Navi took the lead since she was smaller and would be far more difficult for an enemy to hit. It was obvious that the heat and toxic air was affecting her too; her glow had diminished slightly in the time since they had entered the caverns and she was flying much closer to head level than she usually did. Usually she would be three or four feet overhead but at the moment she was a little closer to one. Thankfully, the next room was unoccupied, it didn't exactly qualify as a room either though, it was actually a tunnel that spiraled downward for hundreds and hundreds of feet like a corkscrew, deeper and deeper into the mountain.

"Echo!" Link shouted, he grinned as the sound reflected off the walls and ceiling of the room and came back to him moments later. As they began to walk deeper and deeper into the passageway, with Navi being the only source of light, Link realized something else, the air in the chamber was clean, and it was getting cooler as they proceeded deeper in. it wasn't fresh air by any stretch of the imagination, it was stagnant and had a metallic taste of dust, but that wasn't the point, the point was it was not the disgusting, foul, chemical tainted air that they had been breathing in the volcanic chambers.

"This chamber goes on for five miles; we will go a mile further into the mountain's depths in that time. That should bring our total altitude to a little bit higher than Kakariko village." Navi stated, glowing green for a moment as she used her magic to scan the tunnel and compare it to the outside world. Link found it hard to believe that they were still more than a mile above the level of Kakariko village.

Once they reached the main slope of the tunnel, they found it difficult to keep their balance on the steep downward slope on a smooth obsidian floor that seemed to absorb light. Link was the one that accidentally discovered the fast way down. He slipped and landed flat on his ass, then immediately began to slide downward. At first he tried to get up but then realized that the entire tunnel was made like a slide, he could go all the way down to the bottom like this. He continued on his downward trajectory and heard a whoop of excitement to his left. Sophia had taken after his example and now they were both sliding down towards the bottom of the mountain at close to twenty miles per hour, faster than either of them could run, almost effortlessly. According to Navi the tunnel was five miles long, so Link figured it would take close to fifteen minutes to reach the bottom, maybe a little bit less because he began to realize they were picking up speed.

"We're gonna hit the bottom too fast" Sophia shouted, realizing at about the same time that they were going down at speeds somewhat above what could be considered safe. Link turned to Navi who was flying alongside them at breakneck speeds.

"Navi! What's at the bottom of this slide?" Link shouted. Navi glowed green for a few seconds before answering the question.

"The end of this slide meets an underground river's source, a lake approximately forty feet deep; there shouldn't be any current since we will land on the opposite side from the river." Navi explained. Link breathed a sigh of relief; the trip wouldn't end with smashing on the jagged rocks below. His relief was short lived however when he began to realize that there was something else at the bottom that could become a very big problem. He turned to his left.

"Can you swim!" he shouted over at Sophia, she turned and cupped a hand around her ear to signal that she hadn't heard him. Link repeated the question and she shook her head no. Link knew he needed to think fast, they didn't have much time before they reached the bottom. Sophia began to realize what the problem was too, luckily, Link had a solution.

"Slide me your pack, I have an idea!" Link ordered. Sophia took off her pack and slid it over to Link. Link took the pack and set it down on his chest, then began taking items from the pack and stuffing them in the pouch at his side. Once he had removed enough of the bulk of the pack, it was small enough that he was able to fit the entire thing into his pouch. Link then removed the pouch from his belt and began to blow air into it. He kept it up until he was lightheaded and there was at least a volume of twenty liters of air in the pouch. He pressed his right boot against the ground and began to slide left, closer to Sophia. Once he was near enough, he blew a little more air into the pouch and then handed it over to her, instructing her to hold the mouth shut and use it to stay afloat. Link figured that if the pouch neutralized about two thirds of all the weight in it, than it likely neutralized the affect of two thirds of the air in it, so a little more than twenty liters of air would likely give her about seven liters of buoyancy, more than enough to keep her afloat. Sophia took the pouch and maintained a death grip on it for the rest of the way down towards the end. Link could tell they were reaching the bottom of the tunnel when the slope began to level out and he tasted moisture in the air. A moment later the obsidian slide disappeared from beneath him and he hardly had enough time to scream before plunging into the frigid water below.

Water soaked into Link's clothes and immediately began to weigh him down, but he had always been a good swimmer and began to struggle up to the surface. When he got up he saw that Sophia had barely gone under water at all, the pouch filled with air had worked even better than he had expected. Link climbed up onto shore and then helped Sophia climb up to safety. She handed back the pouch and then Link hung it at his side. He reached down into it a moment later and grabbed one of the unused bandages and cut it in half with his sword. Sophia looked at him questioningly and Link explained to her what he was doing with them. He walked back to the edge of the water and dipped them in before he began speaking.

"Remember how much breathing sucked in those upper chambers, if the next few chambers are anything like that than we can breathe through these, get less ashes and chemicals in our lungs." Link explained while handing her one of the soaked bandages and keeping the other for himself. He held it in his hand and walked up to the door. The moment he opened it he was hit full in the face with a blast of hot air and immediately covered his mouth with the soaked bandage, then tied it in a knot behind his head so it stayed in place over his mouth on its own.

The next room in the cavern could have been hell itself. The door they entered the room through was on its right side, at the back was the fossilized skull of a giant Dodongo, each of its teeth were as long as Link's arm and its eye sockets were as tall as he was. To their left at the front of the room was what appeared to be the main entrance and Link already knew it would be blocked by the boulder they saw that had fallen down the side of the mountain on their way up the day before. There was also a door at the far side of the room but Link knew which way he had to go. Inside the skull of the great Dodongo was a door, and Link was sure that his destination was on the other side.

They had to be careful, one false move would spell doom, a short drop and a sudden stop into the depths of a fiery chasm, there wouldn't be anything left to bury. Navi took the lead and made sure their route to the door was clear of monsters and major obstacles, two quick bobs were the signal that the way was clear, and the two hylians made their way across the chamber to the doorway. They didn't notice the smell till they got near, the smell of burnt flesh, like smoke drifting off a cauterized wound. Corpses were strewn around the doorway. Gorons, Dodongos, it didn't make a difference. Their bodies were torn open, sometimes into several parts, and then they had been burned, apparently after they were torn apart. From the smell, it had been like that for at least a day and a half, even cooked, they had already begun to rot.

Link pressed the soaked cloth tighter against his mouth to block out the stench and Sophia coughed and almost threw up at the smell. The closer they got to the door, the more evident it became that whatever had transpired here had been the work of Gannondorf. Some of the dead Gorons were not torn, but cut. A discarded Gerudo sword and later on, a body to go along with it, confirmed this. Link looked on the dead Gerudo with hatred, and then proceeded up to the door.

The steel barrier was tall enough and wide enough to rival even the gates of Hyrule castle. Metal bars melted in half littered the floor; evidently Gannondorf had used some sort of fire magic to cut through all of the bars and allow the door open. Cut chains and a shattered lock the size of Link's shield finished the mental image of what had occurred. Gannondorf had let loose something terrible, and killed everything that tried to stop him. Link walked up to the door, angrier than he had ever allowed himself to be. All of this death, all of this destruction, it was Gannondorf's fault, and Link would be the one to make him pay. But first, he would make things right, so without further ado, he opened the door, and stepped inside.

It was dark as midnight on the other side. The only light in the cathedral-sized chamber was that which came from Navi. The chamber was silent aside from what sounded somewhat like a rhythmic drumbeat, about once a second. Link could feel the vibration in his boots every time the beat sounded, but he couldn't quite place what it was. Sophia followed him through the door, and without warning it slammed shut behind them. Link spun around in surprise just as thick iron bars slid down from the ceiling and locked in place over the door, trapping them inside.

Navi flew up towards the ceiling of the chamber and then brightened to the point where it hurt their eyes to look at her directly. Even so, the chamber was so massive that only a dim blue glow was cast over everything at their level. A massive shape rested against the far side of the room, which was otherwise a plain stone rotunda with a cone shaped ceiling, dotted with stalactites.

Only a few seconds after the door slammed, and just as Navi reached the top of the room, the rumbling beat Link and Sophia had been feeling in their boots began to pick up speed, doubling in the short time since the door had sealed behind them. The shape against the far side of the room seemed to shift. Link squinted and looked at it again to make sure he had really seen it, in the eerie light cast off by Navi; it was difficult to tell if it was the object or just the light playing tricks on his eyes. It didn't take too long for him to realize that the thing really was moving. When it was going slowly it was possible that it was just his vision tricking him, but when it sprouted legs and unrolled into a giant lizard, it was quite obvious what it was. They had found the King Dodongo.

"Well… that's big…" Sophia stated with hidden panic behind her voice. Link drew his sword and shield and Sophia hefted the stolen Lizafos sword.

"I noticed" Link replied in a fake nonchalant voice as the King Dodongo unfurled into its full form. It was now that Link realized what the rhythmic beating he had felt in his shoes had been. He had been feeling the heartbeat of the giant that now stood before them, preparing for its next meal. The land dragon opened its mouth and inhaled a massive breath before shooting fire from its great maw directly towards them. It didn't have the range to hit them from across the room like that, but it was enough to give Link and Sophia a demonstration of its amazing power. The ball of flame lit the room as bright as sunlight and collapsed about halfway across the room. Flaming liquid that had been spewed forth from deep within the beast's innards splattered across the floor around the center of the room and began to burn with an angry red glow, like magnesium in a furnace. The flames were so hot that some of the rock in the center of the room actually began to melt, casting a dull orange glow across the entirety of the room. Navi descended from the ceiling and began to strafe across the surface of the great monster, occasionally hitting its surface. Link wasn't sure what Navi was doing, but the King Dodongo was lumbering around the edge of the rotunda towards them and they maybe had thirty seconds left before it reached them.

"We need a plan, now!" Sophia shouted. Link stared at the monster and thought for a few seconds, trying to come up with something that would work on it. Not able to think up anything, Link assumed a combat stance and prepared to charge. He waited for the monster to get close and then sprinted towards it as fast as he could. Sophia sprinted alongside him and they split up, Link going right and Sophia going left. They both hit its front legs with their swords at the same time. Sophia cracked off about a dozen scales the size of her forearm, but beneath the first layer of the demonic lizard's scales was a second layer of smaller scales that glistened in the firelight.

Link had managed a lightly better swing against the monster's front left leg, but still didn't do all that much damage to it. He broke off at least twenty of the outer layer scales and six or seven from the lower level, his sword had kept going with the little momentum it still had at that point and had made a cut in the leg about three inches deep by a foot long. The force of the impact was so great that it sent Link spinning around and onto the floor. He rolled out of the way as the Dodongo tried to crush him beneath its massive foot, then attacked again at the same spot, cutting the monster slightly higher this time and causing a slightly larger wound. Still, the monster's leg was almost four feet thick, he hadn't done any more damage to it than a bruise would be to himself.

The Dodongo roared and spun around much faster than Link thought something so large could possibly move. Its tail spun around like a whip, hitting Sophia on the first spin and hitting Link on the second, they both ended up in a heap near the door where they had started. Sophia was already getting up when Link was turned into a green missile that knocked them both to the ground.

Sophia was once again the first to get up; she grabbed Link and pulled him into the narrow protection of the doorway as a literal wall of fire burst from the King Dodongo's mouth with the full intention of burning them alive. There was just enough room in the edge of the doorway for them to take cover from the onslaught of fire. Waves of heat lapped over them like a sea of lava, but they were protected from the worst of it. Link wondered for a minute whether or not they would be trapped by the flaming fluid that would be left behind after the Dodongo finished its flamethrower-routine, but quickly figured out that would not be the case. The floor of the room appeared flat but it was actually shaped very slightly like a dish. The incline was only a degree or two but it was enough that the oily substance receded to the center of the chamber, bringing its fire along with it.

The duo didn't waste any time, the moment it was cooled down enough to leave cover, they sprinted in the opposite direction from the monster, which was already preparing another onslaught of fire to send down on them. They were joined by Navi once they were out of the area that had been blasted by fire.

"Its skin is too thick for your swords, use the bombs!" Navi shouted. It took Link a moment to figure out what Navi meant, still disoriented from having been flung across the room by the impact from the monster's tail. Once he realized what the fairy was saying though, he wondered why he hadn't thought of it himself. He put the sword and shield back on and then reached deep into the pouch at his side, pulling out a bomb. He stopped abruptly and spun on his heels so he faced the massive beast, which had been chasing them as fast as its massive body could move on its fat legs. Before the monster could change its course, Link pulled the cap off the end of the fuse and lobbed the bomb at the monster with all his strength. The ball of explosive spun through the air, trailing a thin tendril of smoke behind its fuse, before impacting on the monster's side and exploding. Link shielded his eyes and recoiled away from the detonation. When the smoke cleared, the monster was still there, its beady black eyes now glowing red with fury. An area about five feet across and roughly circular had been blasted clear of scales and a crater of blackened flesh penetrated deep into the Dodongo's side. Still, the damage wasn't bad enough to put the monster out of commission. It opened its mouth and began to inhale a massive breath, with nowhere to take cover, the next fiery onslaught would certainly kill him, but this time Link had a brilliant idea. The monster opened its mouth to inhale, and Link threw two bombs, one in each hand, deep into its throat. The creature choked on the explosive and then spat out one, but the other was lodged too deep in its throat for it to remove. It detonated and green blood and bone fragments sprayed out of the Dodongo's mouth, but its innards had been designed by nature to withstand fire and it had survived. Link scrambled to grab yet another bomb from his pouch but he knew he didn't have enough time; he had seconds before the monster got him.

This time, Sophia was the one with the plan. She ran forward, passing Link, and picked up the bomb the Dodongo had choked up. Link hadn't pulled the fuse on it; instead he had been counting on the fire inside the Dodongo to light it. Sophia ran up to the leg that Link had injured with his sword and drew her own weapon, holding the sword in her right hand and the bomb in her left. She stabbed her sword deep into the Dodongo's leg through the wound Link had already made. She cut up and in, all the way down to the bone, then pulled the fuse on the bomb with her teeth before jamming it inside the Dodongo's leg. She jumped away from the monster which had begun madly clawing at its own leg before it exploded in a massive plume of fire and blood. The monster collapsed, its entire leg almost completely vaporized, and Link was ready with a bomb, which he threw into the wound he had made with his first bomb on the monster's side.

The Dodongo screeched in fury and with the last of its strength surged forward at him. The monster was dead before it hit him, but it was still more than five tons of fire breathing lizard which landed right on top of him. The last thing Link saw before lapsing into unconsciousness was a wall of shimmering green scales coming down upon him. His last act was likely the one that saved his life, he drew the shield off his back and held it in front of his body as he was crushed by a wall scales.


	13. A Magic Trick

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 13: A Magic Trick

Once again blackness swirled about the consciousness of Link. He felt in the third person, he knew he was hurt but was not sure exactly how or why. He remembered something about bombs and fire breathing lizards and could see in his mind how that could be cause for pain and unconsciousness. But there was something else too, something pressing down on him, crushing his very soul under its enormous weight.

"Link!"

The shout was distant, blurred, as if a whisper from a distant world. The meaning behind that distant shadow of a name was clear, someone meant for him to awaken from the netherworld and return to a reality that could possibly be so much as a dream to those who existed within the nether.

Link listened for the voice again and this time could not find it in the depths of his inner hell. He felt another sensation though, a sensation of relaxing, as if the great weight threatening to crush his unconsciousness were being removed. Soon it was gone entirely and Link was once again free of one of his many burdens. The shout repeated itself but this time was much closer, any closer and it would have been deafening, but it was still drawn out and blurred, as if he were listening to it underwater. He listened again for the voice, trying to see if he could figure out who had spoken or where they had spoken from. He didn't have long to search though, because a moment later a burning pain ripped through his cheek and he felt himself falling, falling until…

… Link lashed out, his closed fist shot upwards with incredible speed and slammed into the jaw of his attacker, he tried to stay his hand approximately three inches before it hit Sophia in the jaw, but he didn't have enough time and Sophia caught almost the full force of his punch right in the jaw. The impact was enough to actually knock her off her feet and onto her back. Link jumped up and immediately checked to see if she was OK.

"What the hell!" Sophia shouted while staggering to her feet. Link began to stumble for words of apology but all that came out of his mouth was a tangled mess of mismatched syllables. Finally he managed to get his wits together enough to end it with a 'sorry'. Sophia just stared at him oddly for a second before breaking out laughing at his failed act of contrition.

"Alright, apology accepted; now we gotta figure out how the hell we're gonna get out of this place." Sophia laughed. Link looked around the room for a door, but the only way in or out was the sealed door they had entered through, and Link wasn't sure if the bombs they had would be enough to blow through it, even if they were all piled together against it. Navi picked the perfect time to fly over and lend her assistance.

"A section of wall on the far side of the room is unusually thin, you could blow it open with just one of those bombs and it leads into an adjoining cavern." Navi explained quickly. Navi turned around and began to lead them in the right direction, but Link had only taken three steps when pain burst through his right leg.

"Agh! Damn!" Link shouted as something tore into the flesh of his leg just below the knee. He looked down and saw a fragment from one of the king Dodongo's scales was stuck deep in his calf.

"Got any red potion left?" Link asked. Sophia shook her head.

"I dropped my pack when we started fighting the monster, I think it got incinerated. All of the potion was in the pack." Sophia said. Link nodded in understanding while sitting down and taking a good look at the sliver of scale stuck in his leg. He reached in the pouch hanging at his side and pulled out the piece of wet cloth he had been using as a dust mask in the upper chambers.

"Well then, we take care of this the old fashioned way." Link joked grimly before grabbing the scale. He hesitated for a second, then gritted his teeth, and ripped it out. A spurt of blood followed the green scale out of his flesh and soon his whole leg was soaked. Link groaned in pain but didn't waste any time putting the bandage on to keep it from bleeding further. Soon the bandage was tinged red and a slight trickle was snaking its way down his leg, but his shield had saved him from further injury, it had taken most of the weight of the king Dodongo and kept its scales from cutting into his chest.

"Alright, lead the way, I don't want to stick around here any longer than we need to" Link instructed. Navi complied and began to hover a circuit around the cavernous chamber, keeping a short lead but not breaking from the group. Sophia had at some point lost the lizafos sword and was now just armed with her knife, which she held in a combat ready position. Link kept his sword out, his shield on his back, and a bomb in his right hand, ready to use on a moments notice. His thigh wasn't bleeding anymore but he was limping badly and felt something grinding inside his leg when he walked, he was going to need something a lot better than what he had been able to manage in the cave with his meager supplies.

They weren't able to move very fast, but there wasn't anything to run from at the moment so it was not yet a problem. Still, it took almost four minutes to reach the wall on the far side of the chamber which Navi floated next to, marking for Link where to put the bomb. Link stopped about thirty feet away and pulled the cap on the bomb, which he threw almost perfectly to land right at the base of what was according to Navi, a thin wall. Before it went off, Link pulled his shield off his back with his right hand and crouched down behind it, Sophia in turn took cover behind him and the shield protected them both from the stone fragments that came off the detonation.

When the smoke cleared Link rose to his feet and returned his shield to its mounts on his sword sheath. The tunnel on the other side of the splintered rock face was made out of a black glassy material that seemed to soak up all of the light around it. Sophia took the lead and kneeled down at the edge of the tunnel entrance. She ran her hand lightly across the glossy black surface of the tube shaped tunnel.

"This is obsidian" Sophia said while slowly getting to her feet, she stood still for a few seconds, listening to the complete silence of the darkness beyond. When she was satisfied that there was nothing there, she put her knife back in its sheath and waved Link and Navi forward. They entered the tube and Navi looked in both directions, it sloped up to their left and down to their right.

"Obsidian…" Navi mumbled to herself. She hovered down to the level of the floor and began to scan its surface much closer than Sophia had.

"This isn't part of the cavern system, it's a secondary pressure vent for the lower magma chambers, looks pretty old, I wouldn't be worried about it going off while we're in it. Considering how much the mountain has changed lately, I would bet this tunnel isn't even connected to the magma chamber anymore." Sophia explained. She turned uphill and smelled the air for a second before starting to walk up the lava tube.

"Still, I'd rather not stay in here longer than I have to" She continued. Link grinned at this and then followed her up the slope with Navi following close behind. Navi soon repositioned to the front of the group since she was the only source of light for the corridor.

The pain in Link's leg began to grow worse as they progressed onwards but he ignored it and kept moving up the lava tube, towards the surface of the mountain. The tunnel sloped upwards at ten degrees, so every eighty feet they walked; they gained ten feet of altitude. Link didn't like that they were going to have to walk so far to make it to the surface, but any steeper and the going would be even more difficult. They made their way warily up the interior of the volcano and watched for any signs that something bad was about to happen. Link got that sign when he heard something crack.

"Did you hear that?" Link whispered as he halted in the middle of the tube. At the moment it was wide enough to stand it but they had gone through points where they had to crouch down just to make it through the narrow gaps. Sophia took a quick look around and Navi brightened momentarily to help her see around. Before either of them could say anything though, the ground gave way beneath Link's feet, and he plunged down into a crevice below. Down he fell, into the darkness of Death Mountain's abyss.

((()))

Link wasn't sure when he lost consciousness, but when he woke up, he quickly became aware of the fact that he was freezing. He wondered how far he had fallen, and furthermore, how he had survived such a fall in the first place, he had dropped straight down for almost a minute straight at the least, he would have been miles underground, with no way out and likely more injuries than he could count. But strangely, there were no additions to his already massive list of injuries other than the hypothermia which was rapidly beginning to set in. Link slowly and unsteadily rose to his feet and spotted his sword glimmering in the dim light about twenty feet away. He walked over to it and picked it up, inspecting it before returning it to its sheath on his back. Link stood still for a moment and looked up. Above him was total blackness, he couldn't even see Navi's light for how distant it had become. So where was the light coming from? He definitely could see where his sword had been laying and he could see the point where the stone floor receded into a black river underground, what he had evidently landed in and presently had been dragged from before regaining consciousness. He turned around and found the source of light to be two torches burning with a strange green flame, with a pool of crystal clear water between them. The pool and the torches were both made from the same pure white marble, with the bricks laid together so well that Link bet his sword couldn't breach the space between them. In front of the pool was a pedestal made of the same marble with the golden image of the triforce engraved in it and filled in with precious metals. Link stood just staring at the strange shrine miles below the mountain of fire, until a voice jolted him back to reality.

"Come forward, hero. Drink from the fountain of magic." The voice said. Link stepped towards the underground spring and halted at the foot of the pedestal. He would have to stand on it to reach the fountain and drink. Link began to have second thoughts, how could he know that the water was not poisoned or cursed in some way. Somehow, he knew that just wasn't so, there was something about the voice that made him believe it. Besides, so far underground, with very little food or water, a poisoned spring would be a gift. So without further hesitation, Link stepped up onto the platform and looked down into the sparkling water. There was something different about it. He was not sure if it was the strange lighting playing tricks on him or if it was really there, but Link thought he saw orbs of a strange and magical light floating in the water he was about to drink from. But before he could second guess himself, he closed his eyes, and submerged his entire face in the water, drinking deeply the frigid and pure water.

The water of the mystical shrine did something strange when he drank from it. Though the water itself was ice cold, it actually felt as though it was warming him up when he drank it. He drank more and felt the pain of his injuries and the numbness of the hypothermia fade away. When he finally stood, he found that it was not just the sensation that had changed. Though he was still soaked in frigid water, the burns and the puncture wound from the stray dragon-scale had disappeared. Link ripped the now useless bandage from his leg and tossed it aside.

"Feeling better now?" the voice asked. This time, the voice didn't seem as if it were coming from inside his head, but from a specific location. Namely, straight up. Link jumped backwards in surprise and drew his sword. Hovering in the air over the fountain was a girl, probably a young adult age, wearing a dress longer than her legs that hung all the way down to about an inch above the water's surface. Her long golden hair floated behind her head as if she was underwater and her entire body gave off a golden light. She just laughed at Link as he slowly rose to his feet, holding the sword between himself and the mystical woman.

"You know, that's not a very polite way to treat someone after saving your life." The girl laughed. She hovered down to Link's level and her mystical qualities faded into human ones as her feet touched the ground. It wasn't until she was actually standing in front of him that Link realized how tall she was, almost seven feet with her hair hanging almost down to her waist. Link slowly returned his sword to its sheath and the girl reached out for his hand.

"Young hero, chosen by destiny, I am the great fairy of magic" the girl said. Link eyed her suspiciously, before allowing her to take his hand. Her grip was surprisingly light despite her great height, and Link allowed her to lead him to the edge of the dark waters that bordered the stone floor of the ancient shrine. The great fairy extended her hand out over the waters and the entire chamber was suddenly and violently lit by a glaring blue light. Runes writ in ancient Hylian were stacked along the walls as if the primordial granite walls were a great page within the book of Hyrule. One such line of runes glowed a different color of green, and seemed to levitate off the wall and towards Link and The Great Fairy. As the magic lines drew closer, they shifted form into a single ball of green energy, which without warning shot towards Link with the speed of an arrow and fused with his chest. Link stumbled backwards but not for the impact of the magic as much as for the surprise of it. The Great Fairy held his hand tight though and he didn't fall. He regained his balance and blinked a few times, and when he opened his eyes again the magic writings were gone.

"I have blessed you with a power you will find most necessary. The power of flame. Din's fire will burn with a flame hotter than any this world has seen since the dawn of time, and hotter than any it will see till the land's sunset in apocalyptic fire. It is to command by your will, and only your will can command it. Let the light of Din's fire destroy the blackness that hides within the souls of all." The Great Fairy said. Even before she finished speaking, Link saw that her skin was becoming translucent; she was beginning to fade away into nothingness. She turned and ran towards the fountain.

"Be careful, hero. You will find there is a traitor in a place you would not expect. I have seen your future, and great pain comes soon." The Great Fairy said. She stepped up onto the edge of the fountain and jumped down into the water. Golden light lifted up from the inside of the fountain and began to engulf the mystical figure.

"Wait, how do I get back to my friends" Link asked. The Great Fairy turned towards him and responded.

"They're coming to you!" The Great Fairy replied as she began to fade away, dissolving into light. Link wondered for a moment what she meant but the question was answered a moment later by a shout from behind.

"Link!"

Link spun around and saw Sophia and Navi run into the room, ready for battle. Seeing no enemies and Link standing in the center of the room, Sophia put away her knife and Navi glowed a little dimmer. They looked at Link for a moment and then turned to the fountain. Navi suddenly began to emit a brilliant white light and Link covered his eyes, green spots dancing across his vision long after he blocked out the light.

"By the goddesses, how did you find _this?_" Navi shouted excitedly. She flew over to the fountain at surprising speed and before Link could ask what she was doing, dove into the water, sending up a splash as tall as Link. Link and Sophia ran forward and looked down into the fountain, but Navi was gone, disappeared in the crystalline waters below.

"Navi!" Link shouted. There was no response, not even a slight acknowledgement of his presence from the fountain. Sophia reached down towards the fountain but the air around the fountain hummed angrily as she approached, she pulled her hand back and saw that it was covered in red welts and small first degree burns. Link himself reached down and splashed his hand in the fountain as if disrupting the mirror-like effect of the water could bring back his guardian. Nothing seemed to work. Link had just begun to wonder why the fountain had rejected Sophia's hand, but before he could continue thinking on the subject, there was a flash of light and Navi appeared in the air over their heads.

"That was refreshing" Navi stated simply. Link wasn't quite sure what she meant by this, but fortunately she explained it to him.

"When fairies like me leave the forest, we no longer gain energy from our surroundings, only sacred places like this can replenish our power. So if I don't find a fountain like this every so often, or some other source of magic power, than I will lose my physical form." Navi explained. Link understood a little better now how it worked, though he still wasn't quite sure, it didn't really matter so long as he knew what he needed to do to keep Navi alive. Link looked up into the blackness above, it was a long way.

"How do we get back upstairs?" Link asked. Sophia looked at him with a confused look and Navi spoke up before the awkward silence could last any longer.

"Link…" Navi started. Sophia finished for her though in explaining the situation.

"Link… we're near the top of the mountain"

((()))

It had taken a while to find the way outside, but when they did, finding a way back down the inside of the mountain didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore. Despite being filled with pitfalls and deathtraps, the inside of the mountain was far more hospitable than its surface. As Link and Sophia stepped out of the inside of the mountain and into the cold night beyond, a frigid gale assaulted them, quickly freezing them to the bone. Link reached down into the pouch at his side which they had packed all of Sophia's things into as well since it neutralized about two thirds of the weight. He quickly found and withdrew Sophia's blue tunic and the heavy cloak, and the blankets from the night before. Each of them draped a blanket over their shoulders before Sophia put on the blue tunic and Link put on the cloak, which was several sizes too small but would have to do. Once they were all set, they stepped fully out of the cave entrance and into the cold night of Death Mountain.

Even with the protection of all of the clothing and equipment they had, the cold still assaulted them mercilessly as they made their way down the mountain. Link was glad for his kokiri boots, which were water proof and had a fur lining on the inside, keeping the snow out and the heat in. Sophia had similar boots but Link wasn't sure if they were able to keep out the water.

They found an ice merchant trail after only a few minutes of walking, and began making their way down the slope on the narrow wagon trail. They walked for a few minutes more with Navi flying overhead keeping watch for monsters, but Link thought it unlikely that they would run into any in the dark in such cold weather. Still, Navi kept watch just in case. It took at least three hours just to get to a point where they could see the lights of Kakariko village, dim pinpricks of light on a sheet of black. Link thought he could see castle town as well but he wasn't quite sure if it was real or just his eyes playing tricks on him, he didn't know what effect prolonged exposure to cold would have on him, but it couldn't be good.

"We need to conserve heat, or we will both die on this mountain." Sophia stated, her teeth chattered as she said it and a plume of white fog followed the words out of her mouth. Link nodded in agreement. Sophia walked over to him and grabbed his cloak, pulling open the right side and stepping inside. She closed the cloak in front of her so it was closed around both of them and already Link could feel the difference. It was awkward for them to walk like that, but it was by far preferable over death. They managed to keep that up for what Link thought was about three hours, it was hard to keep track of the time without something to base it on since the moon was hidden behind the halo of black ash-clouds that circled overhead. After a total of about six hours since leaving the cave, Sophia collapsed. Link managed to catch her before she fell, which was a lucky thing too, because they were about three feet from the edge of a cliff.

"Sophia!" Link shouted. He caught her falling and dove in the opposite direction of the cliff so her weight wouldn't push them both over the edge. Once they were out of danger Link opened the cloak and stepped out of it. So far as he could tell, Sophia was uninjured, at least on the outside. Navi quickly swooped down and began scanning her unmoving body. Link stood by and watched as Navi quickly came up with an answer to the problem.

"She's hypothermic, and is suffering from exhaustion. She isn't going any further today" Navi said. Link nodded grimly and then tried to think of some way to solve the problem. Outside they stood no chance, they needed some form of shelter, but there was none to be had that Link could think of. But Navi had a plan, and when Link heard it, he was hitting himself for not having thought of it before. He wasn't sure if it would work, he had never tried it before, but if it did it would be brilliant. So without further thought, Link stood and wrapped Sophia tightly in the cloak, then removed Saria's pouch from his belt.

((()))

The first feeling Sophia experienced when she awoke was disorientation, then vertigo, as if the world had been turned upside down. Her head pounded in rhythm with her heartbeat and she pressed her hands against her head to try and neutralize the feeling of pressure inside her head, but it wouldn't go away. She groaned and raised her head off of the balled up cloak that made a pillow of sorts. The inside of whatever sort of tent she was in looked strange the walls appeared to be made out of a single sheet of leather, which was impossible considering how large it was. Each wall appeared to be eight feet high and eight wide, and the tent was square in shape like a room. The walls of the tent were square as well as the ceiling, like a normal room. And the entire thing was supported by a thin latticework of deku sticks. Equipment that Sophia recognized as belonging to Link was scattered all over the room. Deku nuts, bombs, a slingshot sitting in the corner, a few bottles and loaves of bread sat in leather sheaths actually mounted on the walls. Link himself was nowhere to be seen but Sophia knew he wouldn't go anywhere far away from his equipment. She slowly got to her feet and checked herself for injury. Other than a long scratch on her right arm she was fine. Her combat knife was still hanging under her left arm where she left it, she made sure she could draw it quickly incase something bad was going on outside, though she doubted she would need it.

The strangest thing about this new place though was that the entrance was so small and had no covering flap like a normal tent would. Sophia wondered what strange race had made a tent like this. It didn't matter though; she was going to figure it out as soon as she went outside. She wisely grabbed the cloak that had been laying below her head like a pillow and put it on before getting down on her hands and knees and crawling outside into the powdery white snow. When she got through the gap, she stood and looked ahead. They were still in the snowdrifts but now only about three miles walking from the thaw-line.

Sophia experienced a moment of disorientation as she turned around and saw nothing there; the tent seemed to have simply vanished into thin air. Link appeared over the edge of a rocky outcropping with a blanket tied around his neck like a cape and sword in hand. He returned the sword to its sheath and ran over. Sophia sat down and blinked a few times to try and fix her sense of gravity. As she sat she felt something brush her back, she looked and saw Link's pouch sitting on the ground to her left. It took her a few moments to comprehend what was going on, and realize what ingenious thing Link had done. The magic pouch could expand to near limitless size on the inside without changing on the outside, so he had used his deku sticks to create a cavity on the inside that was much like a tent, it was ingenious.

Link reached Sophia who was sitting in the snow and helped her to her feet. Once he had helped her up he grabbed his pouch and reached inside. Sophia heard a crashing noise inside the pouch and Link yanked his hand out quickly with a deku stick in hand. He put the deku stick back and then attached the pouch to his belt again.

"There are ice wagons heading up the mountain right now, they'll be here soon, we can catch a ride down to the Goron city on one. We need to get on their trail though; it's about half a mile west." Link explained quickly. Sophia didn't hesitate to follow him west in the direction of the trail. They ran to make sure they caught the wagons in time. There were several of them headed up the side of the mountain, already visible from Link's position higher up on the mountain. Sophia had warmed up somewhat overnight, but still looked to be in no condition to be walking through the snow. Her lips were blue and her skin was pale white and turning light blue in places, she wouldn't make it much longer, even though she was up and running at the moment, it would not take much to put her back down. As it was she could hardly maintain a walking pace without leaning onto Link, the muscles in her legs had been fatigued, frozen, then thawed, and now were being frozen again. As Link had suspected, her boots weren't waterproof and had filled with water, which was why she had gotten hypothermia well before he was in any real danger.

"We aren't going to make it to intercept those wagons, and I don't think we can wait for them to come back down" Link said. Navi had an idea though, yet another brilliant one.

"I can go ahead and tell the wagon drivers you're coming, I'm not doing any good here at the moment." Navi replied. Link nodded and Navi flew in the direction of the wagons. Link stopped pushing Sophia to walk so fast and let her walk at her own speed. Sophia slowed down to more of a limp than a walk, but with the amount of punishment her feet had taken it wasn't so much of a surprise.

At that speed it took almost fifteen minutes to reach the road, and while most of the horse drawn wagons were disappearing into the distance, one wagon had halted and Navi was floating outside the insulated cabin. Sophia recognized it as not being a storage wagon but a shelter wagon. That was good, the shelter wagons were there so the workers didn't have to be exposed to the cold for so long, they were heat insulated and were equipped with a woodstove. All of the wagons had insulated cabins which would be far better than dealing with the cold outside. But the rest wagons were actually equipped almost as well as a regular house, it was just what they needed.

"Come on, get in quick, the boss gave me leave to take you down to the Goron city but I don't want to keep him waiting." The wagon driver shouted. Link helped Sophia over to the wagon and then climbed up into the back. Sophia immediately took a seat near the woodstove while Link walked up to the front of the wagon. He opened the small door to the enclosed driver's cabin and Navi flew past him into the main cabin.

"I gotta wonder, how did you guys survive out there all night, you don't even have cold weather gear, we got the best stuff that money can buy and we can't even stay out overnight." The driver asked. Link grinned and looked at him, he looked familiar but Link wasn't quite sure where from.

"Trade secret, just get us down to the Goron city, how long will it take you to get us there?" Link asked. The driver pulled out his map and looked it over for a moment before coming up with a definitive answer.

"there are snowdrifts blocking the two main paths down the mountain, we have to take the long way to get to the Goron city, maybe two hours if things go well." The driver said. Link nodded and was about to go back to the main cabin when he turned in the door, facing the driver.

"Thank you" Link said. The driver just laughed when Link said this and then pointed out the front of the wagon in the direction of Kakariko village.

"No, thank you, for saving my bar two days ago" the man said. Link suddenly realized why the man looked so familiar, he was the bartender from the bar he had saved from the bandits, suddenly Link felt stupid for having thanked the man whose business he had saved.

"I could take you all the way down to Kakariko if you want, my boss wouldn't be too happy about it but if I explained the situation I'm sure he would understand." The driver said. Link shook his head 'no'.

"Goron City is where I'm trying to get to." Link replied. The driver appeared mystified by this. Apparently people usually didn't need to go to see the Gorons, but Link trusted that the driver wouldn't question him further on the subject. The driver motioned to the back and Link took the hint and sat down at the table that was bolted to the floor. Sophia had already taken the cot in the corner and Link was pretty sure she was asleep, though he couldn't really tell. Navi was sitting by the woodstove and threw in twigs and kindling to keep it going, but the fire was burning it faster than she could put it in. Link stepped in and tossed in a log about the size of his forearm. This was the only comfort he had in days and for all he knew it could be the last civilized place he went for a while as well. The flames drew in the log hungrily and the flames slowly grew. Link closed the door to the woodstove and then grabbed a bottle of some unidentifiable drink; it was translucent with a deep purple and red color to it. Link pulled out the cork out of the bottle and the smell of grapes and something bitter filled his nostrils, he lifted the bottle and drank a gulp. It tasted good in his mouth but then burnt his throat as he swallowed it.

"Augh! Yuck! What is that?" Link coughed. He slammed the cork back in the bottle as Navi flew over and inspected it.

"You remember the innkeeper in the castle?" Navi asked. Link nodded and Navi gestured towards the bottle with a small and fragile looking wing.

"Same drink" Navi laughed. Link put the bottle back where he found it, wondering how anyone could like a drink like that. It tasted terrible and upset his stomach. He coughed again and took a seat at the bolted down table in a chair that was also attached to the floor to keep it from moving when the cart hit a bump.

"Remind me to never touch that crap again" Link said while pointing at the cabinet. Navi had no response, but Link already knew what she wanted to say on the subject, something along the lines of 'agreed'. Link tilted his head backwards over the back of the chair and closed his eyes, picturing the peace of the kokiri forest in his head until he was slowly lulled to sleep by his own pleasant thoughts. He only wished he could really go back there and see it for himself once again, every morning for the rest of his days. For a while he had wanted to see what was outside the forest but now that he had seen the pain and suffering that existed in the outside world, he wished he had never left.

He just wanted to go home.


	14. Upstream

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 14: Upstream

Link was awakened by the halting of the wagon, a jolt that was just strong enough to awaken him. The woodstove had died down to just embers, but it wasn't that cold outside either so Link wasn't too worried about it. He heard the driver get out of the sealed cabin and the horses stomped impatiently at the front of the wagon, their hooves clopping against the hard stone of the mountainside. Link got to his feet and his knees made a popping sound and ached as he got to his feet. He stumbled to the back of the wagon, his vision still blurry from having just woken up, then pushed open the back door just as the driver circled around to open it for him.

"Ah, you're awake. Come on out, there's someone waiting for you, the elder of the Gorons in fact." he said. Link turned to his left and put his hand on Sophia's shoulder, he waited a moment before shaking her awake, he knew she needed the rest and wouldn't be getting much more for a while, but he would rather the Goron elder saw them both so he would never make the assumption that he had sent one of them to their death in the deep dark tunnels of Death Mountain.

"5 minutes" Sophia mumbled. Link shook her shoulder a bit harder and she jolted awake as if shot out of a cannon. It was a sudden change but Link had anticipated it and jumped back so she wouldn't make any assumptions about who was a threat. Sophia quickly managed to calm herself and slowly got to her feet. The short rest had helped but her feet were still messed up from the trek through the snow without waterproof boots. The boots sat on the floor next to the woodstove and were drying out. Sophia stepped out of the wagon and onto the ground outside. Link turned to the driver.

"This may not take as long as I thought; we may need that ride down to Kakariko after all." Link said. The driver nodded, Link didn't want to push the limit of his favors, but it had taken too long to get this far, he didn't want it to take any longer than it had to for him to get the final spiritual stone.

"You destroyed the king of the accursed beasts!" Darunia shouted from the entrance to the Goron city, he was flanked by two smaller Gorons armed with stone hammers. Darunia walked forward and Link approached him from the wagon. Sophia followed Link towards Darunia and they met halfway between the cave and the wagon.

They stopped mere feet from each other. They stood silently for a moment, just looking at one another, then Darunia cried out happily and grabbed them both in a tight hug. Link felt the Goron hug crush the air out of his lungs and was worried he would suffocate, but Darunia let him go just in time for him to inhale a deep breath.

"You have saved my people!" Darunia exclaimed. Link stepped back before the Goron elder could crush his ribs with another hug like that. Sophia did the same and the Goron leader looked down at her feet.

"Where are your shoes, and your pack, your things are gone? And what happened to your feet, look at them!" Darunia asked. Sophia looked down at her red and swollen feet and simply explained the loss of equipment with a few short words.

"It got burned up. And my feet froze on the mountain." Sophia explained. Darunia studied her for a second, his eyes narrowed as if trying to figure out the meaning of what she had said. Then satisfied he had been given the truth, he got back to his flamboyant demeanor.

"Well then we get you new things, and potion to heal your feet!" Darunia turned to one of the two bodyguards behind him. "Get some red potion for the Hylian! Goro!"

The Goron guard saluted and then rolled into a ball and down into the underground city. Darunia then turned to the other guard and began ordering him to prepare rooms for Link and Sophia but Link stopped him before he could finish.

"We aren't staying, I just need the spiritual stone and we can wait a minute or two for the potion, but you are not the only ones who have suffered the Gerudo King's wrath. There are others who need our assistance." Link stated. It wasn't exactly true, he really didn't know if the Zora people actually needed his help or not, but he wanted time if they needed it.

"Of course, I am sorry for my selfish thoughts, but you have done so much for my people. I know I asked too much of you, so let my thanks be written in history. I shall give you the spiritual stone of fire, and it will symbolize our unity as sworn brothers. You took great risk for us in our time of need, and now as sworn brothers, we will do the same for you" Darunia stated. He raised his hands over his head and a ball of glowing crimson light hovered above him. The ball of light contracted into a small fist sized ruby, wrapped in a golden band in the shape of the Goron insignia. Darunia caught it as it fell into his hands and then held it out in two hands and kneeled down before Link.

"We owe you a great debt, I hope that someday it can be repaid" Darunia said. Link accepted the spiritual stone gratefully and put it in his pouch next to the spiritual stone of the forest. Two down and one to go, he hoped he could get it soon before he had any trouble.

"I thank you, but I would rather never be in a place where that debt would need to be paid" Link replied. Darunia laughed heartily as Link said this and patted him on the shoulder a bit harder than Link would have liked. Just then there was a rumbling sound from the direction of the Goron city and the guard Darunia had sent down to the city returned with two large bottles of red potion, either one of the bottles had many times what Sophia would need. That was to be expected though considering that the two of them had actually saved the Goron people from starvation. Gratitude was one thing the Gorons would have in excess; their honor demanded they leave no debt unpaid to the best of their ability.

"So then, this is our farewell, perhaps when the threat of Gannondorf has faded we may meet again" Darunia said. Link nodded, he wondered if maybe he should give the outside world a second chance after his quest was over. The only time he had seen these places was when they were in crisis, maybe the world was not so bad when everyone got along. Link hoped it was that way, while he did like the forest more than the conflicting nature of Hyrule, there was so much more world to be seen outside of the forest, he hoped he could see it all someday, though he doubted that was even possible. The world was likely far more vast than just Hyrule. From what he had seen and heard, he wondered if there was even a point where the world ended at all, maybe it all just kept going. Link didn't really have time to think about such things yet, he had places to be. So far as he could tell it was about eight in the morning, and they had a full day of travel ahead of them to make it to the Zora River before dark.

"I hope to see this world as it was before" Link stated as he and Sophia walked back towards the wagon. He waved goodbye to the Goron as he and Sophia climbed aboard the wagon. The driver stuck his head through the window to the cabin.

"Alright, next stop Kakariko?"

"Anywhere off this damned rock" Link replied in an exhausted voice he sat on the floor leaning against the wall. He knocked his head backwards against the wooden planking of the wall and repeated several times, making a slow rhythmic thumping noise, trying to clear all of the thoughts swarming through his head. He finally began to wonder, how much time did he really have left… or was it already too late.

((()))

The Gerudo army was not what you would call huge; though reasonably large would be a pretty good description. Their entire force was diverted from their normal duties to take part in the assault, a good portion of them were already inside the castle, more than the hylians possibly could have accounted for. Eight hundred well trained warriors inside the walls and five thousand outside. The castle would be able to withstand such an assault… if they could keep their own gates closed, but with the simultaneous killing of the king and shattering of their defenses. The hylians would be helpless to watch as their capital city was destroyed and their army decimated. Sure there would still be small pockets of resistance, but their organized armies and militias would be eliminated.

Currently they were gathered on the edge of the Gerudo Highlands, three miles east of their fortress hidden deep within the Gerudo valley. From the edge of the highlands the castle was slightly visible in the distance, about thirty miles away. They didn't have horses enough for every soldier to have their own, but with about half of the force doubling up, two on one horse, there were just enough. The Gerudo were not sure how they would fight in the cool, temperate, and close quarters environment of the castle, if they managed to get inside. That was the big question. As far as they knew the Hylian army was not gathered there at the moment, but they had no way of knowing just how many were there at the moment. The other wildcard was their leader, Lector. He had been victorious against the Gerudo before and had experienced their tactics and fighting skill first hand. It was entirely plausible to the Gerudo that he may already know their plan. He knew how the Gerudo fought, and he knew how to fight against them effectively.

Nabooru knew Gannondorf had planned for all of this, but there was still the likelihood that there was something he had overlooked. She didn't want to assume anything, and had come prepared to bring down the castle gates herself should the force already within the castle fail to do so. Catapults were already in position to be pulled by their strongest horses to be used to destroy the great stone walls that surrounded the castle. Ammo would be plentiful; the field was full of residual boulders from the great hill which had been quarried to make the stone walls of the castle they were attacking. That was good since they already knew their ammo would be as strong as what they flung it against.

Without further thought as to their plan of attack, Nabooru spun her horse around so she faced the army gathered behind her. They knew the plan. The treaty would be signed at two in the afternoon, and the king would be killed soon after, that was when they would attack. They would begin their ride towards the castle at noon, when the sun was highest in the sky.

"Great warriors of the Gerudo!" Nabooru began. "Today is a day that will be long remembered in song and lore, as the day that we abandoned this accursed desert and became dominant above all the other races of Hyrule. The day we took Hyrule as our own, the land we fought so hard to take for hundreds of years but was denied for us. Now, let us take what we deserve, show the hylians why we are called the Gerudo. Because we are the future of this world, and they are afraid of that! They are afraid of how powerful we have become! It is our hand that will write the history of this day. All of you, every last one of you, are securing the future of the Gerudo people for a thousand years now, and a thousand years beyond. Someday, the Gerudo will be feared across the world, Men and Elves and Gorons and The Zora and all the other races will hear our name and fear it! And today is where that starts!"

The Gerudo army, five thousand women, roared in excitement, checking their weapons and preparing for war. They all drew their scimitars and smacked the steel blades together, gleaming in the desert sun. The call of clanking steel grew louder and more thunderous with every passing second. The sound of five thousand angry Gerudo filled the air for miles, and more and it would have been heard all the way at Hyrule castle. Finally they silenced simultaneously as Nabooru raised one scimitar high over her head. Its blade shone lonely in the desert sun as the rest of the Gerudo put away their weapons and prepared to ride. Nabooru had already figured out where the sun would be at precisely noon, and was ready to lower her sword on that mark, the signal for the Gerudo horde to charge.

It was almost a minute before the sun got there. But when it did, Nabooru's sword fell and the entire Gerudo army charged forth, and took their first steps on Hylian soil. Though the hylians didn't know it, a series of events had been set into motion that was as powerful as it was unstoppable. Even if Nabooru wanted, she could not call loud enough and had no signal to tell the army to turn around. There was nothing in the universe short of an act of the goddesses that could stop the Gerudo army from reaching the castle. So they rode on, keeping to a perfectly planned schedule. Hyrule's doom was sealed, and nobody not even the hero of legend could stop them.

((()))

Link and Sophia stood at the base of Death Mountain. Kakariko village was a mile behind them and the Zora River stretched eight miles ahead of them. Link thought it was a good bit of luck that the bartender and wagon driver had given them a ride down the side of the mountain, otherwise they'd still be stuck somewhere above Goron City. And though it was only noon, Link couldn't shake the feeling that they were running out of time.

That's why they were running. The route up the length of the Zora river was about eight miles long but Link was confident in their ability to make it in under two hours, it wasn't nearly as sloped as the route up death mountain which had taken far longer, but that path was steeply up hill and had multiple cliffs and rockslides barring the path as if the mountain itself were determined to stop them, the land along the edge of the Zora river was far more hospitable.

Still by the time they had run three miles, both of their legs were sore and they were running out of energy. By four miles they had slowed down to a slow jog. At four and a half they reached the point where the river valley began. It wasn't as large as some of the river valleys in other lands but at three and a half miles long it was a pretty good sized chunk of Hyrule. The stone cliff faces at the foot of Death Mountain had been carved out over time by the steady force of thousands and millions of gallons of clean water. The river was not very wide but it was deep, and since the bottom of the river was clean bedrock the river water was almost perfectly clear. There were also ancient powers at work that kept the water drinkable, killed diseases that no mortal could see or destroy.

The terrain within the river valley seemed almost alien, as if someone from another world had taken every color imaginable and discovered some use for it. The river flowed clear and blue as it reflected the light from the clear skies above. The canyon walls carved from the roots of the mountain of fire were in contrast red in color and stacked in layers. The grass was green but in the magical waters of the river other things grew. Water lilies that glowed florescent purple rather than green filled the eddies and slow spots of the river, yellow fruit the size of Link's head hung overripe from trees only a few feet tall, with bark varying shades of white and brown. Along the edge of the river, countless plants, some of which were shaped like pots and others that were like oversized flowers, were almost stacked on top of each other and were colored in every shade of light and dark color imaginable.

Though the mysteriously lush plant life was astounding to Link, he also knew one very important lesson, one that every kokiri knew to heart. Pretty plants are dangerous. Link wasn't quite sure if that lesson still applied outside of the lost woods but didn't care to risk it. If he was wrong it would be a great way to end his quest right then and there. So he made sure to stick to a path of hard-packed earth to avoid touching anything that might be dangerous. He also made sure he was ready at any time to draw his sword if danger should strike, it would really suck to die on his way to the final spiritual stone just because he wasn't prepared for something as simple as a deku baba.

Sophia started having trouble keeping up with Link after about an hour of running. It was to be expected, she wasn't weak but she hadn't been playing tag almost every day her entire life either. So Link was a bit advantaged in the running department. Still, Sophia was doing well, five and a half miles in one hour was a pretty good accomplishment for someone who had been burnt, then frozen, then thawed and shipped down a mountain in an ice miner's wagon.

Link intentionally slowed his pace a little bit so Sophia could keep up with him; he was starting to feel the exhaustion as well. Though he was a lot faster than she was, he also had never really needed to run that far at one time until a few days ago. The Kokiri Village and Lost Woods were a pretty small place compared to even just the Zora River Valley.

By the time they were nearing the end of the valley where the Zora were rumored to live, they had slowed back down to a walking pace. Looking up at the sky, Link figured they had made it eight miles in about an hour and a half, about eleven and a half minutes per mile. Not bad but not even close to how fast Link knew he could run, whether he liked it or not, Sophia was slowing him down, but it was worth it to have someone who knew Hyrule as well as she did. Odds were he would be totally lost without her.

The end of the small river valley was as abrupt as it was disappointing. There was nothing there, not so much as a single Zora or any sign of civilization. Link slowed his pace to a walk and shielded his eyes with the back of his hand as he looked up towards the top of the waterfall. The valley did not continue above the waterfall, even from below and as far away as he was, he could see that all there was above the waterfall was a small open area not much larger than The Great Deku Tree's meadow, Link assumed that the area above was filled with water and was fed by various smaller water sources, they were at the end of the line.

"Damn it!" Link shouted angrily. His voice echoed off the canyon walls and nearby wildlife scattered at the sound of his sudden outburst. Navi awoke with a start beneath Link's cap, but he didn't care that he had woken the small fairy, he needed her help just about now anyways.

Navi flew out from under his hat and hovered a few feet away before turning to face him. Sophia stopped and sat down, leaning against an old weathered boulder that had tumbled from somewhere high up on Death Mountain several thousand years ago, finally coming to a rest where it currently lay on the side of the nearly abandoned road. Link looked around for a moment, looking for some sort of clue about the location of the Zora, but there was none; he had reached the end of the valley without seeing so much as a laid-brick or marker. No signs of intelligent life.

"Navi, we have a little bit of a problem…" Link said. Navi seemed to have already picked up on what this 'problem' was. She bobbed once in acknowledgement and then shot off into the air, higher and higher until she disappeared in the bright blue sky. Link waited for her to come back, one minute, then two; he was just about to shout for her to come back when suddenly she came into view along the canyon wall to his left. Link turned as she approached and waited for her to arrive. She stopped right where she had started, about five feet in front of his face.

"There are two cavern entrances nearby, one at the top of the valley in the river's feeding pool and one concealed behind the waterfall, I also spotted a mechanism that would split the waterfall's flow just enough to allow someone to jump across into the cavern." Navi stated.

"Can you activate it?" Link asked.

"No, the mechanism appears to be activated by some form of resonation, a series of sound-waves at the correct frequency would open the way" Navi said. Link nodded and immediately got an idea.

"Did you see any sort of platforms or markers that I can access from here?" Link asked. Navi bobbed an affirmative and flew over to a ledge about five feet from the side of the waterfall. Link couldn't fly like she could so he would have to get up there some other way. The problem was, it was thirty feet off the ground. That was when Sophia stepped in and pointed out something else Link hadn't seen.

"See that ledge, fifteen feet above it. We can get to that one along a shelf that extends up the side of the canyon wall. Then we can jump down to the ledge we're trying to get to." Sophia said while pointing out the route. Link followed the route backwards to their position with his eyes till he had figured out the fastest way across. Link didn't wait for Sophia to point out any other route, he couldn't shake the feeling that they were running out of time and he wasn't going to let his failure cause the fall of Hyrule.

Link ran to the edge of the river and hesitated for a moment with the water lapping against his boots before beginning to wade into the deep water.

"Link! Wait! I can't swim!" Sophia shouted from behind him. Link remembered what happened in the cavern only a few days before, she would have drowned it they didn't have warning before hand that they were going to end up plunging into an underground river.

Link stood in the water almost up to his waist and felt the cold seeping into his thick leather boots and clothes. Sophia waded up to him into the river, but was afraid to go any further than waist deep. Link thought for a minute, and then decided on the best simple solution he could think of. He grabbed Sophia's hand and pulled her closer to him, then had her put her left arm over the back of his neck. Once she had a good grip on his neck and shoulders, Link began to wade deeper into the water. Sophia grabbed on tighter as the water got deeper, up to Link's chest, then his shoulders, then his neck. Link had never tried swimming while carrying the weight of a person, he hoped he could do it, or their trip to the other side of the river could cause more problems than it would solve.

Link reached the point where he could no longer keep his feet on the bottom and his head over the water; it was one or the other. Link grabbed Sophia tighter with his right arm and then pushed off the rocky bottom and began paddling with his left arm and feet. He felt the water soaking deeper into his clothing, weighing him down. His boots gave him almost no propulsion when he paddled, but he kept going and somehow managed to stay over the water.

Link began to grow exhausted, but kept on paddling, doing everything he could to make sure he and Sophia both got across the river. Eventually, despite Link's low expectations, they made it. The shallows were much wider on the other side and it only took about forty feet of swimming to reach them. Link felt his boots touch rock and stood on his toes to keep his head above the water, slowly making his way up onto the shore. Sophia let go of her death grip on him once they were safely on shore and ran her fingers through her wet hair, which hung in damp clumps around her face. Link checked and made sure he still had all of his things on him, and once he was satisfied that he had it all, he led the way over to the slope that Sophia had pointed out earlier. The water in his heavy leather boots made a squishing sound every time Link took a step and Sophia wasn't much better off.

When they reached it, they found out it was actually much wider than it had appeared from the other side, almost five feet, plenty of space if they walked single file. This time Sophia took the lead. She walked along the grassy cliff edge until they reached the top of the first ledge. Looking down, Link could see the platform that Navi had told him about. Navi rejoined the two of them just as Sophia fearlessly jumped down to the lower ledge. Link considered asking Navi what the inscription on the pedestal said but he reasoned he could find out quicker by just jumping down. He spent a few seconds preparing himself mentally for the jump, then took a deep breath and leapt down. It took longer than he thought to fall and he experienced a brief moment of fear before hitting the ground, completely unharmed.

Once he was down on the ledge, he read the stone tablet there, and it said exactly what he expected it to. Only members of the Hylian royal family may pass. Link had already planned for this and reached into his pouch, withdrawing Saria's ocarina. He lifted the small clay instrument to his lips and played the melody Impa had taught him only a few short days ago. The sound filled the peaceful river valley with a euphony of Hyrule's most treasured song. Just as Link had expected, the waterfall split in two revealing a hidden passageway behind the rushing white water. It was a good hiding spot but Link had found it nonetheless.

Sophia and Link both looked into the blackness, expecting some sort of welcome. This was so far as they could tell the only accessible way into the Zora kingdom, wouldn't they at least have posted a guard or something. They waited for a moment for someone to appear but nobody did. The mechanism above began to move back into place and Link didn't feel like playing the song twice. He jumped across the gap and onto the dark corridor beyond and Sophia followed soon behind. Navi passed through the gap just as the waterfall closed back up, leaving no evidence that the doorway had ever existed, when it was in fact hidden just behind a thin curtain of falling water.

"Its brilliant, any sort of attacking army would have to enter one or two at a time, this place would be impenetrable." Sophia commented as they began to walk down the corridor carved out of the cliff face. It didn't take them long to find the welcome party though. Link first thought he heard something in a dark alcove off to the left, it sounded almost like someone slapping a belt against the floor in the distance. Link knew it had to be the footsteps of these Zora creatures, which to this point Link had not seen a single one of. Link and Sophia slowed their pace and looked around for the source of the noise; it seemed as if it were all around them. Link considered drawing his sword incase it was a monster and not a Zora, but if it was the Zora than that may be interpreted as an act of aggression. He was in the middle of pondering this dilemma when they appeared.

They seemed to melt out of the shadows, suddenly appearing in a circle around the two kids and their fairy. They were a light blue color but something about them made it hard to look directly at them, as if their eyes couldn't interpret what they were seeing. All of them wore armor made from what appeared to be large fish scales and carried tridents made from all manner of underwater things, fish bones, coral, and occasionally precious metals. Link could see at least twenty of them in a circle around him and Sophia in the tight passageway, so if things went bad they were pretty much screwed. One who wore armor made from finer scales of gold stepped forward, he was at least a foot taller than all the others and two and a half feet taller than Link. It was not until Link was faced by this higher ranking soldier of the Zora that he realized just how big they were, the one presently confronting him was at least eight feet tall and the rest were just shy of seven.

"Children of Hyrule, how is it that you have wandered into our city!" the Zora demanded.

"We seek an audience with your leader" Link replied. The Zora remained totally still for a moment, as if sizing Link up. What business could a Hylian child possibly have with the king of the Zora?

"You will turn around and leave this place" the Zora said. Link didn't flinch. The Zora stepped forward and gripped his trident tighter; Link began to wonder if coming in through a hidden entrance had been the best idea. It was the only entrance he could find but that didn't change the fact that it had been hidden, and likely with good reason on the part of the Zora.

"Not until I have an audience with your king" Link replied. The Zora looked at him, then at Sophia, then at Navi floating overhead. He looked Link over once more and then put one hand under his chin as if thinking for a moment.

"Tell me, why does a Kokiri come through our gates wielding a sword of the forest and a shield of Hyrule?..." the Zora asked. His gaze wandered down to the pouch at his side and his eyes flashed a brilliant shade of blue for a moment. "… and the stones of life and fire?" he finished. Link took a step back, confused, how had the Zora identified the contents of his pouch.

"I am here for the final spiritual stone" Link stated firmly, but there was an edge of tension in his voice. The Zora laughed as if Link had said something funny and Link held his ground, not even flinching at the Zora's exhibition. The Zora stopped and then looked down at Link once more.

"It must truly be a sad day for the Kingdom of Hyrule if they rest the fate of the Triforce on the shoulders of a Kokiri and a girl." The Zora laughed.

"The people of Hyrule will never find out what transpires this day, if I am successful." Link replied. The Zora laughed once more, this time Link felt that the Zora was personally mocking him. But the Zora soon explained that it was not him that he was mocking, but his lack of knowledge.

"We Zora have an ability you Hylians do not, we can see the future, the power of an oracle rests in the hands of almost every Zora. Today is a day that we have seen in vision for a thousand years!" The Zora exclaimed. Link stood silent and listened as the Zora told him what he had seen.

"You see, little Hylian, for a thousand years, we Zora have foreseen a great battle this day. Even as we speak, the army of five thousand Gerudo marches upon your fields, tears down your walls, and makes haste to the gates of Hyrule Castle. We have already seen the victor, young child, and we have already seen you!" the Zora exclaimed. The other Zora around him seemed to be getting a little uneasy and Link saw the same from Sophia and Navi, the Zora was delivering an ultimatum to the greatest kingdom any of them had ever known.

"Young one, listen to my words and hear them well. This very day, the Kingdom of Hyrule will fall. Nothing you can do can stop the evil that has crept inside its walls. You are too late young Hylian. You are too late, too weak, and too insignificant to cause even the slightest change in the war that is about to engulf our beloved world." The Zora shouted as Link, almost as if he were angry at him for having some slight shred of hope for the future of a world he had only known for a few short days. Link listened to what the Zora said, and heard all his words, but did not heed them. He looked up; fists clinched in rage, and delivered an ultimatum of his own.

"You look down on me for trying? I look down on you, for hiding in your cave while you knew for a thousand years that Hyrule would be destroyed! I look down on you, for not even trying to do what is right! For not taking a single opportunity on a millennia to warn the Hylians of their coming demise! I didn't even know about Hyrule till a few days ago, but I already have done a thousand times over what you would even consider doing for them!" Link shouted angrily. The Zora was taken aback by the sudden display of rage, then grinned coldly at the young warrior standing before him.

"I will allow you your audience with King Zora, but know this, should you pursue your destiny, your destiny shall become your demise." The Zora said before turning around and leading them deeper into the vast network of grottoes that formed their civilization.


	15. The Missing Fish

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 15: The Missing Fish

The Zora in golden armor led Link, Sophia, and Navi deeper into the depths of the earth. Link had been somewhat amazed by the scope of the Goron City, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next.

The main chamber of the Zora cavern network was massive, comparable in size to the excavation the Gorons had done on Death Mountain, the difference was that the entirety of the lower levels in this cavern network were filled with water. Clear water flowed in from the depths of the spring fed lake at the top of the cliff and cascaded down into the lower pools in a series of waterfalls. Link could see little through the rippling surface of the grotto's collecting pool and the reflective drops of water falling from the ceiling. What he could see though the glimmering maze of currents and splash patterns was what appeared to be an entire city under the water's surface. Some sort of underwater fire that glowed an eerie blue lit the doorways of every house and building and Zoras swam in alleyways as if they were on a regular surface street in Hyrule Castle. Link marveled at the underwater city that spanned the entire base of the underground lake. To the Zora, this was day to day.

Link remembered his reaction upon seeing the other wonders of Hyrule. Never once had he seen any tree as massive as any of the trees in the lost woods. He wondered what the reaction would be from these people if they saw the woods, would they experience the same sort of wonder at the scale of the massive trees and deku plants. It was possible. The only reason the Hylians didn't marvel at their own castle was for the fact that they had seen it almost every day for as long as they could remember. These things were only amazing in the idea that they were a sight he had never before beheld. Of course his forest would be equally amazing to them. Hopefully Sophia would have the same sort of reaction.

There was something else though. As their journey progressed, Link found himself becoming increasingly wary of her. Maybe it was just his senses tricking him or maybe it was Navi's dislike of her playing off on him. But something just didn't seem right about her. Link turned away from the underground lake and looked over at Sophia's back. Long red hair cascaded down over her new pack that bore the insignia of the Gorons. They had given it to her along with the bottles of red potion that they had provided her and Link with. Right now it was mostly empty other than for a few of the items Link had been carrying for her at the time her pack had been destroyed by the King Dodongo. But it wasn't the pack Link was looking at, it was her hair.

Long red hair.

It wasn't the same color as Malon's hair, but the color was familiar. It matched the hair of another whom Link had not yet personally encountered, but had seen on many occasions. Her hair matched that of Gannondorf, King of the Gerudo, almost exactly. But the Gerudo had darker skin, and in overall appearance, Sophia was far more similar to Malon than she was to Gannondorf, and she had saved his life more than once. Link almost felt guilty for even toying with such an idea in his mind as comparing her to The King of Evil himself.

"Come, Kokiri Child… King Zora awaits" The Gold Armored Zora shouted. Link found that caught up in thought he had begun to lag behind the guards and Sophia, though Navi had held back and remained with him. Link crossed a bridge hewn out of solid stone by a million years of the steady force of falling water and caught up with the rest of the group just as they reached a massive gate made of shimmering steel and gold. Just one of those gates probably was worth enough money to feed the entire population of Hyrule for a month. Link once again caught himself staring but managed to keep his grip on the situation and followed the Zora guards up the stone steps beyond the gate, Link counted a hundred and twenty two steps, until they reached a throne room on the other side.

The Zora captain was the first to pass through the archway, followed by Link and Navi. Sophia began to cross the threshold but one of the Zora reached out and violently grabbed her by the shoulder.

"No women, the throne room is for the business of men!" the Zora seethed. Link wondered why that Zora in particular seemed so angry, then looked at the others and saw that they all were equally annoyed or mad. Navi turned and saw what was going on, then left the throne room to comply with their customs, leaving Link alone in the throne room with the armored Zora and the king himself.

Link had never seen any creature quite like the king. He was like a Zora but slightly more fishlike. Rather than a throne, he had a steaming tub of hot water rimmed in gold and quartz crystal, which seemed to have faint luminance in the presence of the steam. Link also saw an archway at the back of the room and a tunnel beyond which led to what appeared to be the holding lake at the top of the Zora River Valley.

Link didn't know very much about the customs of the Zora, but knew enough to drop to one knee, then draw his sword and place it point first against the ground in front of him, bowing his head behind it. He had seen the guards in Hyrule castle do the same thing in the presence of their king; he hoped Zora customs were similar enough to theirs for his actions to pass.

"Rise, little knight" the king ordered. His voice was much deeper and more powerful than it should have been based on his outward appearance. Similar in sound to the Deku Tree, only the Deku Tree also looked the part. Link slowly rose to his feet and sheathed his sword. The King Zora stood and rose from the pool of steaming water and took few but long strides to reach him in under five steps and far quicker than Link thought such a being could move. He was obviously far greater in strength and wisdom than his appearance suggested.

"You are an anomaly, a paragon to all Hyrule. A child so young yet so willfully and courageously intertwined with the fate of all this land. It does me good to have finally met you, after waiting so long." The Zora King stated. He turned to the golden armored Zora who had led Link up from the entrance way.

"You may leave us now. I wish to speak with this Kokiri alone" he said. The Zora guard bowed and then stepped out through the same archway that he had led Link in through. He closed the grand gates behind him and the balustrades closed with a thunderous booming noise that seemed to carry a sense of finality along with it. There was a moment of total silence, the likes of which Link had never experienced before, until the Zora king once again began speaking, though his words of praise had been traded for news of more serious matters.

"I had hoped your arrival would bring good news. But these days, a good thing is too much to expect from anyone. Much less a boy, such as yourself." The Zora king said. Link stood still as a stone while the Zora king began his rant.

"I have not gazed into the future in a long while, but last time I did, I saw you. They called you The Hero of Time, wielder of the Master Sword, bearer of the Triforce of Courage. But I look at you, and I see none of these things. Neither of your hands bears the mark of courage, your sword is but a dull scrap of metal with a handle of deku wood, and you have no control over the flow of time. Do you see now why I am disappointed in you?" the Zora King asked.

"I am not here to discuss failure, I am here to discuss an item which you possess" Link stated. The King laughed spitefully when Link said this.

"Ah yes, of course, no doubt you seek the stone which contains the power of Nayru's wisdom, a treasure of the gods bestowed upon my royal bloodline to await the arrival of a hero or the end of time, whichever comes first. As it so happens, that stone you seek has, by all knowledge, disappeared, along with my daughter. You see, I entrusted it to her when she became old enough to know its true value, I did as the goddess asked, passed the stone of wisdom down through my bloodline, but now my daughter has been lost and she was the only one who knew of the whereabouts of that sacred treasure. Now do you see why I cannot help you? Whether or not you can see it, my family and my people along with it are falling apart. That security detail that brought you to me is all that remains of my once grand army. Gannondorf wanted the very same stone you currently seek, and right now I am beginning to wish I had given it to him, ever since I refused him, my people have begun to fade away. Eventually, our people will be little more than legends!" The Zora King roared. Link was sure that even on the other side of the massive gates that were now closed behind him, they had heard the furious shouts of the Zora King.

"What if I could save your daughter, if I could find her and bring her home? Would I be given the spiritual stone?" Link asked. The Zora King comprehended this for a moment. Then nodded.

"One Zora saved, even my daughter, is insignificant to the survival of the race, but if you truly can save her than I give you my blessing to do it and my promise that the spiritual stone will be yours should you succeed." The King replied. That was a step in the right direction. Link pushed his advantage; he would need all the time he could get if he intended to beat the Gerudo army that was, according to the Zora captain, marching on Hyrule castle even as they spoke. Every second searching for her that he could save would be a second more he would have to outrun the Gerudo army.

"There is one place my men have not been able to check. A cave, frozen shut a short time ago. My daughter disappeared before the cave was sealed by ice but my men did not search it before it became unreachable… Unreachable for us, that is." The Zora king began. Link already could see where this was going. Ice would obviously be a severe threat to the fishlike Zora, but Link would not be so hindered by it.

"You want me to search the cave for her?" Link asked. The Zora king nodded.

"How do I get there?" Link asked.

"It is on the other side of the lake from that door" the Zora king said. But Link could tell by the way he said it that there was a twist.

"There is one thing you should know before you go. The lake beyond is the sacred ground of the Zora, where Nayru met the earth and bestowed upon us the spiritual stone of water. Never have we allowed a single Hylian to enter this place, to make an exception for you borders on sacrilege. You must go alone." The Zora king said. Link frowned. Without Sophia was doable. Without Navi, things would get rough. But on the other hand, he had no choice, he had to get the spiritual stone and the Zora leader was apparently bending the rules as far as he could. To ask for more would be too much, Link had to accept what he was given and do so graciously.

"I understand" Link replied. The Zora king smiled and wordlessly stepped aside, giving Link a path to the sacred grounds. Link took the path silently and circled around the water throne and walked up to the archway leading out to the sacred spring.

"I have a warning for you" The Zora shouted from back in the throne room. Link turned around on the ramp and the Zora approached him, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.

"Beware the Gerudo, they are far more clever than I, and they are far more clever than you. Even as the final battle approaches, I believe they follow you. They may not be able to follow you into our sacred grounds, but they have their eyes upon you. Tread carefully, Hylian, they may be hidden in ways you would not expect." The Zora king warned. Link knew this would always be a danger, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. They were too sneaky, if they were following him, he hadn't seen a single Gerudo since he left Hyrule castle.

"I'll be careful" Link replied. And with that, he turned towards the short climb to the surface where the sacred grounds, and hopefully, the spiritual stone, waited…

((()))

"Malon!"

The shout came as a rude interruption to a perfect sleep. Malon lay under a few thick sheets on her feather stuffed bed. One advantage of living on Lon Lon Ranch, all the cuckoo feathers you could want to stuff a mattress. As a result the bed she lay upon was easily one of the most comfortable in the world, despite its poor visual appearance.

Rather than waking when the shout came from downstairs, Malon pulled the blanket tighter around her and felt the warmth of the sunlight streaming in through the window against her face. She knew that she should probably get up, but didn't have the energy to do so. So she just lay there, feeling the warmth caress her exhausted body.

She had been working a lot over the last few days. Harvest season was usually like that. The previous night alone she had been up until three milking cows in the barn and collecting cuckoo eggs. Then she always had to work longer since she always spent so much time around the horses, hours and hours she could spend if nobody interrupted her, just stroking their fur, singing them her mother's song.

"Malon! Are you still in bed?" came a frustrated shout from downstairs. Malon frowned and opened her eyes, then closed them again as the bright light nearly blinded her. She remained motionless in the bed for a few seconds before responding.

"Yes, now go away!" Malon slurred before burrowing deeper into the blankets, trying to fall back asleep but knowing that it would be impossible. It was already sometime in the afternoon so far as she could tell. The bright light coming in through a west facing window attested to that. She had slept in way past the amount of time that was even relatively acceptable. After a minute or so, she groaned and then slowly rose from her bed. She turned so she was in a sitting position and then unsteadily stood up, her bare feet pressed against the old wooden floorboards and the beams beneath creaked. She blinked a few times to clear the blurriness from her eyes and adjust them to the bright lights of the daytime.

Once she was standing, she slowly staggered over to the dresser and leaned against it. She had the disgusting taste in her mouth of sleeping with her mouth open and had missed breakfast. That combined with the smell of manure drifting in through the partway open window was enough to make her throw up. She staggered away from the dresser and over to the window and reached it just in time. She threw up out onto the awning and watched the yellow bile from her stomach ooze down into the gutter. She saw dark clouds approaching from the north; rain would likely ensue and wash away the mess she had left on the roof. She didn't want to have to go through another one of her father's talks about growing up and all of that crap.

Her day was off to a bad start, but she decided that she would put up with it and walked back over to the dresser. She heard the sound of dishes crashing from the lower floor and then another angry shout from below.

"Malon! What the hell! Get down here!" Talon shouted. Malon groaned yanked off her nightgown, pulling a white dress with a blue pattern and red trim out of the dresser. She quickly got dressed and then stepped out of her room, still barefoot. She would put on her shoes before going out into the field to work. She had met enough farmers missing fingers and toes from their line of work to know that boots and gloves were a necessity around equipment like the kind at their ranch.

Malon grabbed a comb off the dresser and quickly ran it through her hair a few times just to get rid of all the tangles that had accumulated in the night. She didn't know how the individual strands of hair managed to get tangled on each other, but they did, and she hated the little pricks of pain across her head as she yanked them out with the comb. Once she had decided it was good enough, she turned to the door and stepped out into the hallway, then walked down the stairs and into the living room, then into the adjacent kitchen. Talon was cleaning the last remaining fragments of a shattered dish from the floor and slightly burnt scrambled eggs and various products of the farm were being cooked on the woodstove.

"You're burning the eggs" Malon stated blandly. Talon rose from his hunched over position by the shattered plate. He straightened his hunched back and then groaned loudly before looking over at the eggs.

"Shit" Talon said dispassionately while grabbing the wooden handle to the iron skillet. He lifted it off the stove and carried it over to the table. He set it down in the center and began putting some seasoning on some of the vegetables he was cooking.

"I thought it would take you longer to get up, lunch won't be ready for another ten minutes. Ingo needed some help moving the cows from the shed to the tower, go tell him that food will be ready soon and help him with that." Talon said while turning over the eggs with his spatula, checking to see whether or not they were a complete loss.

"Sure thing" Malon replied. She turned towards the door and walked through the main room to get to it. About halfway across the front room, something caught her eye. Next to a small pile of hay stacked in the corner, was a spot of blood on the floor. It was dark brown and cracked, dry for a while, but Malon wondered how it got there. It only took her a split second to remember. The boy in green who had come through a few days before. Caught out in the field at night by the stalchildren. That was where the young boy had spent the night. She remembered he was handsome, but for some reason there was little else about him she really could see in her mind. He had nice blonde hair and green clothes, and these deep blue eyes that she thought were really pretty. But other than that, she really didn't remember him. She wasn't even sure if she ever got his name.

"Hey Dad, what ever happened to that boy we helped out a few days ago, the one in green?" Malon asked. Talon stopped what he was doing and scratched his head for a minute, as if trying to remember something that was just out of reach deep in the recesses of his mind.

"I never heard nothing from him after we took him up to castle town. Why do you ask?" Talon questioned.

"Just wondering" Malon replied. She lingered a moment before stepping outside. She had forgotten her boots and gloves, but herding cattle wouldn't involve anything very dangerous so she wasn't worried. She walked towards the barn and saw Ingo unlocking the cattle gate. Malon walked over just as he managed to get it open. She curled her toes into the soft earth and cracked her knuckles before speaking. She didn't like Ingo, and having to talk to him about anything seemed to put a depressor on her whole day.

"Dad says lunch will be ready in ten minutes, he wanted me to help you move the cattle to the tower" Malon stated as she approached. Ingo turned, looked at her with what appeared to be total disinterest, then returned to his job without saying a word. Malon shook her head and wordlessly stepped into the barn and began opening all of the stalls to let the cattle free.

It didn't take very long to get them from the barn to the stone tower. Most of the time was spent walking to the tower leading the cows there. Malon opened the tower gate and led the animals inside while Ingo waited outside. Malon knew the drill; the cows were going to need food. She climbed up into the loft of the tower and grabbed a bag of feed, which she prepared to drop down onto a stack of hay.

Just as she prepared to throw down the sack, something caught her eye out the window. She looked outside and saw what appeared to be a moving wall of sparkles in the distance, coming from the Gerudo desert. She squinted her eyes to try and get a better look, but couldn't make out what it was until it got a little bit closer.

The sparkling light was five thousand swords raised and ready for battle, the Gerudo army had left the desert, and was marching on Hyrule Castle. It wouldn't be very long at this rate until they got there and a full fledged war would be unleashed. Malon gasped in surprise at the sight of the Gerudo army. The bag of feed lay forgotten at her feet. She had to warn father, he could ride to the castle and warn the guards, it wasn't too late. She turned and rushed down the ladder and ran out the bay doors to the tower. Just as she crossed the threshold of the doorway, something slammed into her face so fast and unexpectedly that she was momentarily stunned by the impact, she almost felt as if she couldn't breath. She felt blood flowing out of her nose and wondered if it was broken, based on how hard she had been hit, it probably was. She didn't even know what it was that hit her, until Ingo came into view, standing over her with a heavy wooden board in hand.

"I really can't have you telling the boss about them, it would be bad for my business here at Ingo ranch." Ingo stated calmly Malon wanted to scream, but it seemed like all sound was caught in her throat. She felt as if she couldn't breathe.

"I'm not going to kill you; you're the only worker I fear that I will even have around here after we get conscripted into the Gerudo Empire. But I'm going to make sure that next time you open those pretty little eyes of yours, its going to be under a Gerudo king." Ingo laughed evilly. Malon didn't understand what was going on, but that didn't stop Ingo from raising the wooden board high over his head, and then swinging it down on hers. Malon was knocked out cold upon impact.

((()))

Link stood a few feet away from the most imposing wall of ice he had ever seen. He had seen some pretty impressive snow fields up on Death Mountain, but it couldn't compare with the giant block which stood at least fifty feet tall by a hundred wide and an untold thickness.

Luckily for him, Link already had his solution in mind. He walked up to the wall of seemingly unbreakable ice and closed his eyes, then pressed the palm of his hand against the frozen barricade. He tried to remember The Great Fairy's instructions on how to use Din's Fire. _Wish it and it will be so_ or something along those lines. Link thought of fire. The worst and most powerful fire he could imagine. He could almost feel the heat of the raging inferno he built within his mind, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that the blaze had not only been in his head.

Water lapped at his boots as the runoff from the eight foot diameter hold he had melted in the ice plug ran down into the spring-fed lake. Link didn't wait for an engraved invitation, every minute counted at this point, he had to get the stone and get out as fast as physically possible. Link drew his sword and shield and proceeded to climb through the hole he had melted straight into the solid ice.

The cavern on the other side was not lit very well and he could hardly see anything past the entryway. He slowly climbed through the gap he had melted in the ice wall and jumped down into ankle deep water on the other side, No doubt it was run off from the melted ice. His boots were waterproof and kept the water out, but he could feel the cold seeping through into his feet. It wasn't his feet that he was worried about, but the skittering noise he heard above his head. Something was moving up there.

Link could hardly see anything more than fifty feet into the cave, and being mindful of the noise he heard above, began using Din's Fire as a sort of magical torch to light the way, but he could feel it sapping his strength and knew if the cavern was too big, he wouldn't be able to keep it up for the entire time. He got lucky though, and came across an unlit torch bolted into the smooth limestone wall after only about a hundred feet. Link lit the torch with Din's fire and watched as a dim glow was instantly cast across the area immediately surrounding the torch.

That was when all hell broke loose.

The moment the light of the torch spread to the ceiling, it illuminated a colony of what Link recognized as keese, bat-like avian creatures that lived in caves and dark damp places. Link had expected to find keese in every cave he found, but so far had only run into a handful of them, now he had an entire colony hanging by their feet right above his head, their red eyes glowing an evil red. Dozens of black winged creatures descended from the ceiling upon Link, who luckily already had his sword drawn.

The moment they were inside cutting range, Link let loose with a hail of slashes aimed in no general direction, bringing down as many as three with every swing. The keese weren't giving up though, and Link couldn't swing his sword as fast as they were attacking. The mob of angry birds descended on Link and began their own attack. Sharp talons disproportionately large in comparison to the creatures that held them raked across Link's head and shoulders and upper back. Mostly they were stopped by the thick layers of cloth that comprised Link's tunic and underlying layers of clothing, but a few got through and left deep scratches in Link's skin that began to bleed almost immediately. He needed a more effective way to take out the swarming birds of prey, and he had one. He almost cursed at himself aloud for not thinking of it before.

Link first ducked and rolled out of the way of the keese horde. The flock turned and began to swarm towards him again, but this time Link had his own little attack to use against them. He closed his eyes and then slammed a closed fist into the ground, willing a cleansing fire to spread from him and engulf every monster in sight. Needless to say, it worked. Din's fire spread outward from Link's kneeling form, setting the bodies of the keese alight and instantly incinerating all of them within about twenty feet. Those that had not been incinerated by the blast fell to the floor in miniature comets of burning feathers and flesh.

Link felt the energy drain of using such a massive amount of magical power on a single attack. He had overdone it, by a lot, he would have taken them all out with half as much fire as he had used. Once he was standing he looked down the burnt bodies of the airborne predators now strewn across the cave floor like broken toys in a nursery. They had been waiting their entire lives to destroy something, and now he had destroyed them. Link felt a moment of sadness at having to kill things, even if it had been necessary, and once again began to hope that soon he could go home. But he had heard the warnings of the Zora; they told him that he would fail. He knew he would never go home until he had finished what he had started, and had seen the end of Gannondorf. He would not return home until he had seen the evil king die as painful a death as The Great Deku Tree had suffered.

Link took a seat on a loose rock and shivered in the cold air blowing from deeper within the cave. In the dim light of the torch down the natural corridor, he pulled one of the now stale loaves of bread from the market in Kakariko out of his pouch. He tore off a chunk and tried to remember how long ago it had been. He thought it was three days but he couldn't quite be sure, time had seemed to flow like molasses since he had begun his quest for the spiritual stones. Less than a week ago he hadn't even known about Gannondorf and The Great Deku Tree was still alive.

Link tore off a chunk of stale bread and downed it with the small amount of water left in one of his bottles. One thing that had been overlooked when they had passed through Kakariko that morning was refilling their supplies, Link was almost out of food and water and what little he had left was stale and old, not quite suitable anymore, but it was all he had and he needed to replenish his energy, without something in his stomach to quell his hunger he couldn't do that.

Something made a noise off to Link's right, deeper into the cave. Link froze, his pointed ears twitched, listening hard for any noise from that direction. He slowly set the bottle and bread down on the rock next to him and then drew his sword and shield before slowly standing up to his full height. He heard it again and recognized it as splashing water. Whatever it was, it was climbing out of a pool of water, and it wasn't small, whatever was making the noise was big but trying to be stealthy. Link could tell that the sound was coming from somewhere at least three hundred feet deeper into the cave. Rather than using Din's fire to light the way further, he walked over to the torch mounted on the wall and lifted it away from its mounts. He held the torch ahead of him and whenever he came across another he would light it.

He didn't hear the noise any more but had heard enough of it to know about where it was coming from. He had gone about four hundred feet judging by the number of wall mounted torches he had lit when he reached an impassible obstacle. The cave began to slope downward and went straight into water, and as far as Link could see, it went down further than he was comfortable diving. There was a thin layer of cracked ice across the top of the water, with a person sized hole broken through which Link would assume the person who had caused the noise had climbed through. Link kneeled down and peered into the waters below, looking for some clue about what it was that had made the hole, when a shout behind him made him jump to his feet.

"Who the hell are you?"


	16. Chilled to Perfection

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 16: Chilled to Perfection

"Who the hell are you?"

The shout was sudden and unexpected. Link had grown accustomed to the sound of silence for the last few minutes and the sudden shout was plenty to make him jump. He spun around with his sword in one hand and torch in the other, prepared for a fight. He hadn't expected that what he would encounter would actually be the person he was looking for.

Her appearance was in stark contrast to that of the other Zora Link had seen so far. Then again, he hadn't seen any Zora women yet. But all the other Zora had been much taller than him, but the Zora princess was actually shorter by a good half foot. Her skin was the same light blue color as the rest of the Zora, but her armor was different, being made of deep purple scales rather than the gold and blue the other Zora seemed to prefer.

Despite her small stature, she seemed to have a mature air about her and a radiant confidence that made Link actually feel sort of dwarfed by her presence; Link didn't like the feeling but at the same time felt sort of safe in the protective bubble that seemed to follow her around.

"I'm Link" Link replied. The Zora princess crossed her arms and frowned at Link when he said this. Link wondered what he had done to piss her off. It seemed the entire Zora race had an air of confidence about them, as if they were better than everyone else. Link didn't like the feeling he got from them, they acted all high and mighty and so far as he could tell, they really weren't.

"As if I'm supposed to know who 'Link' is? By who the hell are you I meant where the hell are you from and what the hell are you doing in the Zora sacred grounds?" Ruto asked. Link tried his best not to snap back at her for this, he had given her a straight answer and she had told him off for it.

"I'm Link of the Kokiri, and I am here to save your worthless ass in exchange for the spiritual stone of water, is that better?" Link shot back. Ruto was obviously not accustomed to having people return fire when she gave them flak, and as a result she had no response for his offhanded remarks.

"You…" the Zora princess started as if about to insult him, but she suddenly stopped and cupped a hand over her ear. She held up a hand for Link to stop and listen and then after a few seconds a look of fear crossed her face. She ran for the water and grabbed Link by the arm as she ran past him, dragging him with her towards the pool. Link had no time to brace himself before he was thrown into the freezing cold water, followed by the Zora princess. Link didn't even have time to ask her what the hell was going on before he was forced below the surface, trailing broken ice and air bubbles. All he was thankfully able to do was fill his lungs with air before plunging into the dark waters below. Link looked around and tried to orient himself with gravity in the underground water network he had been thrown into. Ruto swam alongside him and then grabbed him by the arm before pulling him along with her deeper underwater into a series of caverns below.

Link wasn't sure of how much longer he could hold his breath, he hadn't gotten a good inhale before being plunged into the darkness and didn't know how much further they were going. The way Ruto was leading him, it seemed like it wouldn't be much further. The further they got from the surface the darker it got. Link's torch had been extinguished by the fire and the only light source was that coming from the other torches in the cavern above.

Link got lucky; they reached the surface just as the edges of his vision began to turn black. They were in a cave that was completely dark and seemed to corkscrew upwards towards another system of caverns. The moment his head broke the surface, Link inhaled a massive breath and crawled up onto the shore. Ruto shook her head disapprovingly.

"You hylians are so inefficient, can't breath at all underwater" Ruto complained as Link struggled for breath. Link angrily snapped his fingers and willed for Din's fire to reveal itself. A flame engulfed Link's hand and he used it to light another of the wall mounted torches.

"I bet you can't do that, now tell me, why did you throw me into the damn ice water?" Link shouted back angrily. Here he was trying to save her life, and she was treating him as if he were some sort of pest that had materialized in her life.

"Because you were about to get electrocuted" Ruto replied. Link looked at her weird, not understanding what electrocution even was. Ruto shook her head in resignation.

"Don't you know anything? Electrocution. Getting struck by electricity, the stuff that makes lightning. Very dangerous, especially if you have a metal sword drawn." The Zora princess shouted angrily while gesturing towards Link's sword. Link still didn't quite get what she was saying, but understood enough to know that getting electrocuted would really ruin his day, not that his day wasn't already ruined anyways.

"What was going to electrocute me?" Link asked. Ruto took a seat on a rock against the cave wall, Link remained standing.

"There's a monster down here, in these caves, I don't know what it is or where it comes from but it has harnessed the power of electricity and somehow can move through these caves even more efficiently than me. Every time I try a new exit, it manages to block it before I can escape. I need to warn my father about it, but I have to get to him to do that. I think the creature uses a set of ancient metal tracks that go through the layers of stone to get around, transferring it's substance through electrical pulses. You can't use any weapon made of metal on it while the weapon is still connected to you." Ruto replied.

"So, what can I use on it?" Link asked. Ruto smiled when he asked.

"one of these" Ruto answered while reaching into a pouch hanging off her armor and pulling out an 'L' shaped piece of wood with a razor on either end that must have been sharp enough to split hairs.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"A boomerang, you throw it and it returns to you, watch this" Ruto said before throwing it down the hallway. It spun in a wide circle before returning to her outstretched hand and she returned it to her belt. Link looked at the unique weapon in awe for a moment before looking back up to Ruto.

"Problem is, I only have one, so you're pretty much unarmed." Ruto continued. Link reached down into his own pouch and withdrew the slingshot which had seen little use since he had left the forest. As a result he still had a full bag of pellets for it. Ruto nodded her approval when she saw the weapon.

"Slingshot. Pretty similar, except the boomerang never runs out of ammo, but has a little more limited range. Follow me, we're going to try and either find another way out of this place or a way to kill the creature." Ruto instructed. She took to her flipper-like feet and began to lead Link up the sloped corridor, back towards the upper section of the caverns. Link wished he had some of Sophia's stuff with him at the moment, like the blue tunic that would supposedly let the wearer breathe underwater. Link put the thought out of his mind though, no point in wishing for something he couldn't have, better to just focus on the moment and use what he had available to him at the time.

Link followed a short distance behind Ruto as they trekked back up the corkscrew shaped cavern towards what Link took to be another exit. Link kept the torch in his right hand and the slingshot in his left, with a deku seed between two of the fingers of his right that was holding the torch so he could drop it and fire quickly. Ruto kept her boomerang ready as well, but for the moment it appeared that there were no enemies to speak of. After a while of constant climbing, Link spotted light ahead. It wasn't an exit or a torch; he couldn't really tell exactly what it was. It wasn't until they reached it that Link could tell what it was that he had found. It was a hole in the side of the cavern wall, which overlooked the Zora sacred grounds. Link could even see the entrance to the Zora Domain through the gap.

"There's no way we're squeezing through that. Let's keep going and look for a bigger gap." Ruto stated, continuing to lead the way. Link followed her for another hundred feet before he just stopped and did a mental inventory of his equipment. He still had a bunch of bombs from the Gorons.

"Hey, wait a second. That hole we passed a minute ago, I can blow it open with one of these" Link exclaimed while pulling out one of the bombs. Ruto slapped a hand against her face.

"You've had those this whole time and you're just now telling me, we could have gotten out a while ago if I had known, there are tons of points where the cave wall is thin enough to blow open a hole to the surface." Ruto said. She was about to turn around and drag Link back to the hole in the wall when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and looked further down the dark corridor.

"Hand me the torch" Ruto ordered. Link handed it over and Ruto proceeded to throw it down the hallway in the direction they had presently been heading before Link had remembered the bombs. Her throw was better than Link had expected, but even more unexpected was the sound it made when it landed. It was not a thud of wood against stone, but a clang. The sound of wood on metal.

Ruto began running in that direction and Link had no choice but to follow since he still needed to get the spiritual stone from her. They ran right out into an open chamber with a floor made entirely from metal. Link gasped when he saw it, he had never seen anything quite like it. A natural cavern completely cut in half by a single sheet of metal, perfectly level. Link's thick leather boots made a loud ringing noise as he walked on the iron plate that comprised the floor.

"Blow a hole in it; this must be the main part of the monster's transportation system. If we can destroy it, he won't be bothering anyone anytime soon." Ruto said. Link nodded and lifted the bomb. He was about to pull the cap off when Ruto suddenly began to spasm. Link dropped the presently unarmed bomb and caught her as she began to fall. Her eyes went crooked and she retched, vomiting dark red blood all over Link's tunic. Her crooked eyes glassed over and she fell onto the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. Link had no idea what had happened to her but whatever it was, it wasn't good. Link began to kneel down to check her vitals and see if she was still alive, but then changed his mind when he luckily heard something that he otherwise would not have noticed. The ground was humming. The iron plate he was standing upon was completely charged with electricity. His leather boots were the only thing between him and a sudden and painful death.

A crackling noise began somewhere behind him and Link grabbed Ruto's boomerang, careful not to touch her or the floor lest he be electrocuted. Upon turning around he found himself faced with the oddest looking monster he had ever seen. It stood, if it could be called standing, at about twenty feet tall. Its body was a series of inflamed balls of red flesh joined together by a green gooey substance that Link wasn't too keen on touching. From the top of the creature extended three red fleshy tentacles made from the same inflamed tissue as the rest of its body, and crackling yellow beams of light streamed down from the ceiling through these tentacles and into the body of the monster. The electricity gathered in what appeared to be jellyfish clinging to the monster's surface, but Link couldn't tell since they were almost transparent and very difficult to actually see.

Link didn't get much time to look for weaknesses, because the creature wasted no time in attacking. Two different looking tentacles rose from the top of the monster. Unlike the other three, these two had cupped ends with a small pointy metal stud in the center. The golden bands of electrical energy rose up the two new tentacles and gathered in the ends. Link wasn't sure how exactly he knew what it was that the monster would do next, but was glad he had reacted the way he did. Link pulled his sword out and threw it to the left while he jumped to the right. The electricity gathered in the monster's tentacles discharged aimed in his direction, but bent in the air like a golden serpent and hit the sword instead. The blade of the sword crackled with gathered electrical energy which slowly dissipated into the iron floor. Link rolled when he hit the floor and came up with the boomerang ready.

Before the monster could launch a second attack, Link threw the boomerang at it. Not sure exactly how to throw it, he tried imitating the throw Ruto had used before. Surprisingly enough, it actually worked. The boomerang twirled through the air in a wide arc and sliced right through the body of the creature as if it were made of butter. Green fluid trailed after the boomerang as it left a gaping exit wound in the side of the thing. To any other monster, such a deep and massive wound would have been devastating. Link watched in horror as the massive wound he left in the creature crackled with electricity and then regenerated as if the wound had never been there. The injury had been regenerated by the electricity. The only way to kill it would be to cut the electrical flow. Link already had his next target in mind. Before the monster had a chance to recharge, Link threw the boomerang again, this time aiming higher, Link cut not one, nor two, but all three tentacles attaching the monster to the ceiling. All three tentacles fell and the flow of electricity stopped. Link caught the boomerang when it returned and prepared to throw it again, this time to cause a mortal injury, but before he got the chance, he found out that the gelatinous coating on the monster was in fact what he though them to be.

Jellyfish.

More specifically, a whole ton of them. They all popped off the surface of the monster and began to spin around it in a whirlwind cloud. Link jumped back just in time to avoid the attack. One outstretched stinging arm caught the back of Link's hand and left a long red mark across it. The mark began to smoke and Link felt his hand burning, he slapped his hand against his tunic and the sensation went away, but the wound had grown since it had been made. The jellyfish were armed with some sort of strong acid that would burn right through his skin and clothing if he remained in contact with it for too long. Link spied his sword lying on the ground a few feet away, that was the weapon he needed now, the boomerang wasn't going to be effective against the fast moving targets. Link dodged another of the small attackers and then dove for his sword. One of the jellyfish brushed the back of his leg and got him with at least a dozen stingers, each one leaving a trail of acid across his bare right leg. Link gritted his teeth and pressed out the acid with his left boot while grabbing the sword. He stood and limped out of range of the stinging attackers, who Link could now see were tethered to the main monster by some sort of ultra thin wire or cable.

His cutting of the monster's power tentacles had backfired in a way though, because now the main creature was free to move around the chamber without interference. Link was faster than it, even limping, but it would definitely have more endurance based on its size, there was no way Link could take it out by exhausting it, he had to get rid of it before it exhausted him. One of the jellyfish came too close and Link hit it with his sword, slicing it cleanly in two. With his sword in one hand and Ruto's boomerang in the other, Link charged towards the beast, swinging his sword at any jellyfish that got too close. Link took out at least eight of them before he was close enough to throw the boomerang. He let it loose and it spun through the air in a pinwheel, ripping through the red flesh and green pus of the monster, it seemed momentarily stunned by the attack and Link took the opportunity to charge forward and begin hacking away at it with his sword. The putrid smelling pus and flesh that comprised the monster fell away in sheets as Link cut it away. The monster quickly recovered from the shock of the boomerang attack though and all of its jellyfish minions collapsed inward on Link. He was completely surrounded and there was no way he could take them all out with his sword. Din's fire would do it but he didn't have much energy left from having used it earlier on the keese, he wouldn't be able to muster much of the magic attack, but he would have enough, he just had to wait for the monsters to get close, and then hit them with everything he had.

Link gave the main creature a hard slash and ripped some sort of artery which began to spray green liquid everywhere, filling the room with the creature's terrible odor. The monster shrieked and Link sheathed his sword waiting another second until the jellyfish were almost touching him and then focused all of his energy into a single shot of Din's fire. A tornado of fire engulfed Link and everything else in the room, Link didn't see what happened to the monsters, nor did he have enough conscious thought left to even care, as the firestorm faded and he collapsed onto the metal floor, unconscious…

((()))

Heavy leather boots hit the polished marble floor every time Gannondorf took a step. Two Gerudo warriors flanked him, but when he reached the throne room they would be turned away, allowing only Gannondorf alone and supposedly unarmed to enter the throne room. He had a weapon that could not be taken from him, his great and terrible powers of magic, which could not be detected nor taken away until they were used, and he most certainly planned to use it. He had spent years planning how he would come to this single moment, when he would kill the king and take the throne of Hyrule for his own.

An escort of four Hylian guards stepped around a corner as he neared the throne room and they led him the rest of the way, one at each corner of him and his two guards. The guards with him as well as the four that had joined the formation to escort him were a token force. The four guards that had joined were not nearly well enough equipped to kill him or his warriors, and Gannondorf had grown so powerful in magic that to his knowledge there were only three weapons in Hyrule capable of killing him, those being the Silver Arrows, White Sword, and the Master Sword. The first two of those were in the direct possession of the king, and could only kill him when used together. The Master Sword was locked away in the Temple of Time, and could only be accessed by one who had all three spiritual stones and the legendary ocarina of time. The princess had sent a mere child to capture the three stones which Gannondorf himself had been unable to attain. Gannondorf had seen this move and dispatched a young servant of his own to follow him and kill him if he ever managed to capture all three of the stones, the ocarina itself was in the possession of the royal family and Gannondorf would have it by the end of the day.

The guards led Gannondorf around a corner to the throne room doors, but calling them doors was a gross understatement. They formed a high arch thirty feet high, made from solid wood half a foot thick. Over this wood each door had a half inch thick layer of pure silver, finely engraved with art that depicted every part of the Legacy of Hyrule, from the time when the ancient ones created the world to when the current king had taken the throne.

The hallway leading to the doors was flanked by knights, one standing at each column, totaling sixteen, eight on either side. Each of them wore a chainmail hauberk, a tunic, chest plate, and steel gauntlets. Each was armed with a short sword, long sword, spear, shield, and short bow with a dozen arrows. They would be formidable against a force attempting to force entry into the throne room. Without even seeing the doors open, Gannondorf knew that there would be twenty more such guards inside the throne room.

He had planned it all very carefully. Once the king was dead, and Gannondorf had taken the white sword and silver arrows, there would be no way to kill him; he would slaughter any knight who stood against him. It would not take very long for him to have complete control of the city. His warriors would take care of anything he could not. He was invincible but he couldn't be everywhere at once, he needed them to do the small work that he wouldn't have time for.

Two guards grabbed the push bars on either door and the ancient gates of the Hylian throne room slowly creaked open. Trumpeters stationed on either side of the door played on their horns the welcoming call of the royal family. A triplet of C's, a B flat, another C, a C sharp, a D sharp, and finally a C, all in rapid succession made the royal welcoming call. Gannondorf grinned, confident in the knowledge that it would be the last time that call was ever made.

The ceremony would last an hour, at which point Gannondorf and the king would sign the treaty. Only Gannondorf would not sign, he would eliminate the king and anyone else who stood in his way, and Hyrule would be his. His grin widened as he entered the throne room and saw what sat on the right arm of the king's throne. The ocarina of time, another one of his goals, perfectly placed to be claimed as the king fell dead. Everything was working out perfectly. Gannondorf chuckled evilly under his breath and then kneeled at the foot of the king's throne, he didn't mind kneeling, an act of submission that would mean nothing after the king's death. All that mattered was the outcome. Though he kneeled at the king's feet, Gannondorf had in fact already won. One hour, and Hyrule would be erased from the map.

One hour.

((()))

"_Link… Link, wake up!"_

_Link felt cold. His clothing clung to his skin, which was soft and cold as clay. He looked around, but all he saw was the blackness. His nightmare had begun like this, but he felt a difference between the nightmare and this place he found himself in. something in the back of his mind told him that Gannondorf was far away and he was in a much safer place._

"_Link… Get up! Now!"_

_Link heard the order but could not even tell if he was lying down or standing up. He tried to move and couldn't he was somehow trapped in a state of neutral buoyancy in the void. He tried to tell the voice that he could not move, but he could not form words. Thankfully, the voice seemed to understand his present predicament, and decided to reveal itself._

_Golden light split the blackness and Link closed his eyes instinctively as a reaction. He slowly opened his eyes to figure out where the bright light had come from. An angelic figure hovered over him. Her entire figure was semi-transparent and radiant gold, but emitted an aura of green that encircled Link and took away the encroaching feeling of darkness and cold, replacing it with light and warmth._

"_Link, you have claimed the final stone! You have claimed all three of our gifts! Awake and use them, your time is short!" the golden figure shouted. Link opened his mouth to speak but the figure stopped him._

"_Before you speak, know that you speak to Farore, Guardian of Courage." The goddess spoke. Link's eyes widened in shock. He had known that this was what Farore was supposed to look like but had been unable, until she said it was so, to comprehend that she truly was one of the three golden goddesses who in ancient times had formed the world._

"_You are a goddess?" Link asked. Still unbelieving that it was possible that he himself was speaking to an almighty possessor of divine power. The goddess laughed and descended to his level. She reached out with a hand of golden light and grabbed Link by his left shoulder, slowly lifting him to his feet. Link stood as the goddess floated back away from him and looked him over. She smiled with satisfaction at his physical appearance and then came back closer to him to speak._

"_Yes, I am a goddess. I am here to put you back on schedule. You've been dragging your heels as of late, you've been unconscious for the last four minutes and at the moment, time is more precious than rupees." Farore stated. Link looked down at himself. He looked terrible. In addition to being covered in minor cuts and scrapes, he had the wounds inflicted by the jellyfish that circled the monster he had fought back in real life, and several wounds from earlier in his journey that still had not fully healed._

"_You have endured much to reach this point, but you cannot rest yet, you will have a long time to rest when Hyrule is safe. But right now Her Grace is in danger, you are the last thing that stands between the evil king and his goal of conquering all of Hyrule, you are running out of time!" Farore exclaimed._

"_Alright, I'm ready, just release me back into the world, I'll do whatever you need!" Link shouted. The goddess smiled, satisfied with his enthusiasm._

"_You may be courageous now, but a final task awaits you, before you return to Hyrule castle, there will be a final challenge. You must endure it when it arrives, but I fear the divine law prohibits me from telling you what this challenge is. It will forever change you, how you think, how you act, your entire emotional state; will be changed, before you arrive at the castle. Beware, it will be your most dangerous challenge yet, you must make up your own mind, and you must make it up alone. I will send you back now with the warning that has been given. You are not to underestimate the dark lord; he is clever beyond all imagining. Go now, and save Her Grace. Go now, and save Hyrule!" Farore shouted._

_White energy engulfed Link and he felt it pouring into every fiber of his being. The energy of the goddess pulsed into his veins and revived him, breaking him out of the dream world and back into reality. A painful reality, but a reality he was destined to live in. only once did a being ever see a goddess, only once, it was when they died, and fate had other plans. Fate had other plans for Link; the goddess had brought him back from the dead to save the world…_

Link shot up from where he lay on the cold iron floor of the cavern chamber. He was lightheaded and dizzy; the front of his tunic was covered in the blood Ruto had vomited when she was electrocuted. Link looked down at the wound on his leg, the place where he had been struck by a jellyfish tentacle. Black lines laced their way up his leg and across his entire body. It was a wound that would kill anyone else, he had been poisoned and he had died, but the goddess had brought him back to life, to complete his mission. Even as he watched. The black lines faded away and poisonous black fluid flowed out of the wound until it was completely healed. He had been revived.

He didn't have much time. He grabbed his scattered equipment and put it in his pouch, then quickly picked up Ruto and the spiritual stone, instantly in his mind figuring out the fastest way to get out of the cavern. He remembered the hole he had blown in the cave wall that lead to the outside earlier. He draped Ruto over his shoulder and carrying her weight as well as the weight of all of his gear, and marched towards the drop-off.

He didn't look down. Without a moment's hesitation he ran and jumped as far as he could over the edge of the cliff. He fell like a rock towards the water below. Fifty feet he fell until with a massive splash, he and the unconscious Zora princess plunged into the depths of the lake. Link pushed with all of his might, swimming as hard as he could and after a few seconds of battling with gravity, he managed to reach the surface. He inhaled a deep gulp of fresh air and felt the water rushing back to cover him again. Before the weight of the Zora princess could drag him down, he felt her weight lifted away, and then impossibly, he too was lifted out of the water.

"You are out of time. We will take care of the princess, you keep the stone, your friends are waiting outside the throne room. Go!" the golden armored Zora shouted. Link turned and looked at him, and despite his dislike of the Zora warrior, he saw something in the Zora's eyes that he had not seen before. Respect. Respect for him and what he was trying to do.

Link nodded a wordless thanks as the Zora dragged him across the surface of the water back to the cavern entrance. Once there, Link stood up and ran into the throne room. The Zora warrior ran in close behind him carrying the unconscious princess. The King Zora pointed down towards the main entrance to the throne room.

"There is a small boat outside, use it to get to the field, hurry!" the King shouted before turning to his daughter. Link didn't bother to see how that turned out. The message from The Goddess Farore herself had given Link all the information he needed. He didn't have any time left, he was behind with mere hours left on the clock, he had to get to Hyrule Castle, and he had to do it fast.

He burst out through the throne room doors and Sophia and Navi barely had time to avoid the swinging gates. Though he felt better than ever, he must have looked like a mess to them. his green tunic, the same one as he had been wearing when he set out from the kokiri forest, was torn in several places and matted with blood, mostly Ruto's, but also some his. The healing magic of the goddess had not extended to the grime and dirt that coated his clothing and him. He was still dripping wet from his plunge into the lake at the top of the cliff, but hadn't been in the water long enough to wash off all of the accumulated grit on his skin and clothing.

"What the hell happened out there?" Sophia asked. Link grabbed her by the arm and dragged her in the direction of the entrance to the Zora's domain.

"No time, we have to get back to Hyrule Castle; the Gerudo invasion is happening today, we have an hour at best!" Link replied. He continued sprinting through the caverns towards the exit pulling Sophia along behind him.

"Did you get the spiritual stone?" Navi asked.

"Do you think I'd go back to Hyrule castle without it? Hell no! Of course I got it!" Link shouted. In less than a minute they had made it back to the entrance. Link jumped through the waterfall to the outside first, followed closely by Sophia. Without a moment's hesitation, Link dove over the side of the cliff and into the water below. Sophia began to circle around the side while Link swam over to the canoe that the Zora had graciously left for them.

Link wasted no time in getting the canoe ready to sail, and by the time Sophia had made her way over to the boat he already had the oar in hand and was ready to set sail. Sophia cautiously climbed into the back of the boat, wary of her inability to swim, and then quickly sat down once she was inside to avoid tipping it. Navi flew past the front of the canoe and began to watch the river ahead of them as Link pushed off from the shore and began paddling as hard as he could down stream.

Sophia sat in the back of the canoe, dead weight. There was only one paddle, and Link was using it. She couldn't help him, and the moment she had been dreading had arrived. Link had all three spiritual stones. She had followed her orders in helping him get them, now she had one final order to complete. She couldn't do it while he was piloting the canoe, she had no experience with boats and could not swim, she had to do it on dry land. A conflict began in her mind whether or not she should do it at all, she had only known him for but a few days, but she had grown to like him. But there was no avoiding her duty; she couldn't break a direct order from Gannondorf no matter how badly she thought of it.

She was to complete the mission.

She was to kill the Hero of Time.


	17. A Traitor's Knife

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 17: A Traitor's Knife

Pebbles were crushed aside as the canoe powered ashore. The grinding noise was short lived as the boat came to a quick halt on the short of the Zora River. They were as close as they could get to the castle by boat, any closer and the castle guards, already on edge as it was, would get suspicious. It would be conspicuous enough running up to the castle on foot across the massive Hyrule field. That said, anything was better than two hylians piloting a Zora canoe into the moat of the castle.

Link quickly leapt out of the boat and pulled it further ashore. Sophia climbed out and made Link's job of pulling the boat onto dry land much easier. He didn't drag it very far, just far enough to make sure that it wouldn't get caught in high tide and drift down stream into the castle moat. Once he had it far enough from the water's edge, he turned towards the castle, now only about three miles away, they were going to cover the rest of the ground on foot. Sophia began to move behind Link in a listless manner, she almost seemed confused; it could be a side effect of having relied so heavily on red potion for the last few days. Red potion could work miracles if used occasionally, but if used frequently, it had the same side effects as sleep deprivation and malnutrition.

"Come on, let's go, this is almost over!" Link shouted. He began running in the direction of the castle and Sophia began running behind him. She was trying to think of a way to avoid having to kill him, but it was already glaringly obvious that there was no way around it. Gannondorf had given her a direct order to kill him the moment she could get away with it and he had all three stones. They were headed towards the castle where a war was about to start and Gannondorf would be right in the middle of it.

Simply put, there was no way to avoid running into Gannondorf no matter what, and there was no way he was going to refrain from killing her if she told him she had failed her mission, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Despite having reminded herself on numerous occasions, she had still fallen for him. She couldn't do it, and if she didn't she was dead. Rock and a hard place.

She continued running only about ten steps behind him towards the castle, fighting a battle with herself within her head. Twice she reached for the knife and stayed her hand mere inches from the hilt. She was running out of time, but she kept on delaying herself, she couldn't do it anymore. So she sped up her pace and reached over for her knife a third time, this time completing the motion and drawing her knife, speeding up until she was sprinting at Link's back. He began to turn around but before he could see her, she tackled him, careful not to cut him with the knife. She had come up with a compromise…

((()))

Captain Lector could not believe his eyes. His sword was already drawn the moment he had been called up to the top of the turret by one of his subordinates. They had been preparing all day as well as they could for the assault, but Lector had not been expecting it to be nearly so large. The Gerudo army was about two and a half miles out, and the best estimate he could come up with for their force size was about five thousand. The Hylian army was far outnumbered and they had everyone they had been able to summon in the short time they had.

Impa ran up to the tower shortly after him. Lector turned as she opened the hatch and climbed up into the turret. She shielded her eyes from the sunlight and looked over the approaching doom of Hyrule. There were already hundreds of Gerudo soldiers waiting for the signal to attack inside the castle, and while they weren't sure of the exact numbers, they knew it was a lot. They were facing a battle that could not be won, but perhaps something could be scavenged from it, namely, the death of Gannondorf. Without him the Gerudo would be disorganized and ripe for a counter attack, with their desert homeland left unguarded.

"We have very little time, he must hurry up to the castle, I'll secure the princess, you try and get into the throne room. There is no way we can save the king, but if you can get your hands on the white sword you'll have a chance to duel Gannondorf, perhaps you can kill him. A King for a King, Hyrule can recover, there is always another to take the throne, but they only get one every a hundred years, and they have a long time to go." Impa said quickly.

"Good idea! lets move!" Lector exclaimed while running towards the hatch. Impa followed close behind and they hurried down the stairs. They sprinted out of the door at the bottom of the turret and ran up towards the inner castle. In the streets, panic had just set in. most people didn't know what was going on yet, but those who did were spreading the word of the approaching army quick, and everyone that heard panicked to get out of the city or at least off the streets, anywhere safer than where the catapults were going to be aiming within a few minutes. The majority of the mob was swarming towards the drawbridge, which would rise when the Gerudo were close enough to begin using their catapults. Lector and Impa were the only two going against the mob, and any progress at all was extraordinarily difficult.

By the time they reached the castle, the Gerudo army was less than a mile away and would be ready to fire their catapults in less than four minutes. Time was almost out. The moment they crossed the drawbridge to the inner castle, Lector and Impa split up, Impa headed for Zelda's Suite while Lector headed for the throne room.

Impa knew the castle well and was able to quickly make her way up to Zelda's quarters. She threw open the doors and Zelda spun around from where she had been sitting at her desk reading a book. She looked up, unsure of what was going on, but when she saw the look on Impa's face, she could tell it definitely wasn't anything good. Impa grabbed Zelda roughly by the arm and pulled her to her feet, then ran over to the dresser and yanked open the top drawer, pulling out the Shiekah uniform and Ocarina of Time which she had recently given her. Zelda still didn't know what exactly was going on, but didn't complain as Impa grabbed everything she would need and dragged her out into the corridor.

"Where are we going?" Zelda asked. But based on what Impa had grabbed, she already knew. They were running away, the war had begun.

"The Gerudo army approaches, we are running out of time, we will flee to Kakariko!" Impa explained, continuing to pull the princess along with her. They were almost at the end of the hall when a door opened to their left and two Gerudo warriors jumped into the hallway. Impa reacted before they could even draw their scimitars, jumping over their heads and stabbing both in the back with her dagger.

"Keep moving!" Impa shouted, pulling Zelda past the corpses of the two enemies she had just killed. Any further resistance would be far stronger than what she had just encountered; they were unlikely to run into any more Gerudos who did not have their weapons at the ready.

Once they reached the stairwell on he eastern corner of the castle, they ran down four flights of stairs to the ground floor where the Hylian army had already begun to organize. All the soldiers inside the inner castle had gathered at the southern gate and were preparing for war.

"You cannot hide from me!"

The shout came from the back of the room, Impa and Zelda turned and saw Gannondorf framed in the throne room doors, balls of purple energy glowing in either hand. He prepared to throw the magic bombs at Impa and Zelda, but someone stepped between him and Zelda.

It was Captain Lector, a bow and silver arrows in a quiver across his back, the white sword held tightly in his right hand. Gannondorf snarled when he saw this, but Zelda and Impa wasted no time in running across the draw bridge and into the outer castle, getting as far away as possible before he could attack.

((()))

"Gannondorf Dragmire, great leader of the Gerudo empire, do you solemnly swear to pledge your resources, armies, and lands, to the king of Hyrule, in exchange for his protection?" The Royal Scribe asked. The King signed the treaty and then handed the parchment and quill to the Scribe, who approached Gannondorf with the treaty in hand. Gannondorf did not answer his question. The time had come to bring his war into action. No longer would the Gerudo live in the shadow of Hyrule, the Gerudo would become the rulers of Hyrule, and possibly all the world, when given their victory against Hyrule. He began focusing his energies into his hands, preparing to attack.

"Do you solemnly swear to pledge your resources, armies, and lands, to the king of Hyrule, in exchange for his protection?" The scribe repeated. Gannondorf clinched his fists, his fingernails tearing into the rug upon which he kneeled. The scribe wearily took a step back as Gannondorf rose to his feet, the magic gathered in his hands clearly visible. The King was completely unprepared, and despite having the white sword and silver arrows and bow sitting at his side, he was unable to react to the unexpected turn of events. The scribe turned and ran dropping the treaty and quill on the ground, the ink spilled from the ink bottle and stained the royal blue rug upon which Gannondorf stood. The guards lining the edge of the room drew their swords and began to rush into the gap between Gannondorf and the King, but the king upon his throne was taller than them and Gannondorf still had a clear shot.

"NO! IT IS YOU WHO WILL PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO ME!" Gannondorf shouted angrily while raising his hands, now glowing a brilliant yet menacing purple from the sheer amount of black magic contained in them. His left hand discharged at the King and hit him in the throat, almost completely decapitating him. Blood spraying from the massive wound and the King of Hyrule was dead before he hit the floor. The guards gave guttural screams of hatred and charged towards Gannondorf, but they were no match. No weapons but those still lying at the side of the dead king could kill him. He discharged the magic in his right hand into the chest of a charging soldier and then ripped the sword from his hands as he fell. Now armed, he hacked down every last one of the attackers, their own weapons bouncing off his body like so many rubber balls. He got wrapped up in killing the knights assigned to the throne room that he was no longer paying attention to the white sword and silver arrows which he assumed still lay by the king's side. But when he had destroyed all the resistance in the room and turned to look at where they lay, intending to take them for himself and become invincible, they were gone. He turned to the throne room doors just in time to see them close, the royal blue tunic of a captain disappearing on the other side. He saw a flash of white steel and knew that the captain who had just run through those doors had taken the only weapons capable of destroying him. The ocarina still lay on the armrest of the throne, and Gannondorf approached to take it. He picked it up and inspected it closely, to confirm his suspicions; he dropped it on the floor and crushed it under his foot. It was a fake, the real one was unbreakable.

Gannondorf felt a sensation that was new to him when he realized that there was now someone in the castle with the ability to kill him. The feeling of butterflies flapping about in his stomach, the feeling of fear. He had never known fear because he had never had the threat of death so near, now there was one who possessed the weapons to kill him and knew how to use them, he was in danger. He frowned and grabbed a second sword from the body pile he had left in his wake and approached the throne room doors, two swords held ahead of him. His opponent would have to break the energy barrier around him that deflected arrows with the white sword before he could actually be killed by the silver arrows, so he had to do everything he could to keep that sword away from him until he could claim the silver arrows, the only weapon of the two that could actually destroy him. The white sword could only wound him and drain his magical energy, absorbing it into the blade. Gannondorf didn't need to look hard to find the weapons once he exited the throne room. He spotted Zelda and her guardian Impa running across the main hall in the direction of the drawbridge, which led to the outer castle.

"You cannot hide from me!" He shouted, approaching them from across the main hall, a small army had already gathered in the center of the hall, but had seen what he had done in the throne room and knew that their weapons would be useless. They began to back away as Zelda and Impa continued running. Gannondorf began to run after them but someone stepped in the way, and Gannondorf recognized him instantly. He had seen this captain before, years ago during the last war, he had completely decimated the Gerudo army, at the expense of his own battalion, but it was a move that ultimately won the war for Hyrule. Gannondorf sneered and raised his swords while Captain Lector raised the white sword and a Hylian shield. Lector was not going to let Gannondorf pass so easily.

"This ends today, _'Your Highness'_." Lector snarled the term 'highness' as if it was a curse. Gannondorf bared his teeth and raised the two stolen swords, preparing for a fight to the death.

"My war has just begun!" Gannondorf roared before charging at the knight. Gannondorf swung both his blades sideways at Lector's head but Lector was ready and blocked them both with his shield, forcing Gannondorf to leap backwards just barely dodging the white sword. Lector pushed his advantage and forced Gannondorf back further into the throne room. Gannondorf watched as the princess and Impa retreated out of the inner castle, unable to intervene. Captain Lector continued to push Gannondorf back, never giving him an opening to exploit. Gannondorf wasn't getting hit but he also wasn't gaining ground, his purpose in the castle was to attack, to gain the upper hand, right now he was stalemated. He defended himself with his two swords while retreating back towards the throne, beneath which lay the dead king. Gannondorf waited until he was close enough to the throne and then leapt backwards onto the throne itself.

Lector swung the white sword at Gannondorf's neck but only hit empty air as the Dark Lord leapt back onto the throne and then vaulted off it towards him. Lector dodged to the side as Gannondorf's swords gouged into the marble floor. One of the swords stuck in the ground leaving Gannondorf armed with only one.

Lector pressed towards Gannondorf, trying to get the white sword past Gannondorf's guard. Gannondorf couldn't hold his ground with only one sword against Lector's sword and shield. Gannondorf continued to guard with his single sword but let go of it with one hand, using his right hand to defend with the sword while in the left hand he charged another beam of dark energy.

Lector proved to be too skilled at least in sword play for Gannondorf. Gannondorf's second sword got caught between Lector's sword and shield and then twisted out of his hand. Gannondorf lashed out with his foot and kicked Lector in the knee with his steel toed boot. Lector fell but managed to slash at Gannondorf with his sword. The sword sliced through one of Gannondorf's vambraces and tore open the flesh beneath. Green blood spurted through the shallow gash and Gannondorf felt his defensive spells drain into the sword. He was now vulnerable to the silver arrows; he had to finish Lector fast before he could use the bow.

Gannondorf lifted his left hand, still fully charged with black magic and aimed at Lector's face. Lector lifted the white sword into the line of fire just as Gannondorf fired, the impact was so great that it snapped Lector's wrist and sent him sliding back across the floor, the white sword spun across the sword in a spiral and clattered against the far wall, out of reach. Gannondorf began to charge magic in both his hands and Lector threw his shield like a Frisbee. The shield hit Gannondorf in the stomach and compressed the air out of his lungs.

Gannondorf wheeled backwards, and continued to draw power into his hands, preparing to fire more energy at Lector, who now had no shield or sword. But Lector's bow was faster than Gannondorf's magic, and before Gannondorf was ready to fire, Lector had his bow up and an arrow on the string, the silver point glistening in the light streaming in through the stained glass windows. Gannondorf dove to the side and managed to get behind the throne as lector let loose an arrow. The first arrow went past Gannondorf's head, narrowly missing him by less than two inches. Had Lector not received a broken wrist a few moments before, he probably would have hit him dead center of forehead.

Gannondorf took cover behind the throne and finished charging his hands with black magic. He summoned the shield lying on the ground using his magic and it flew onto his arm from across the room.

Once he had the shield to defend himself from Lector's arrows, he crouched around the side of the throne and fired his magic once again with his free hand. Lector loosed an arrow at him but Gannondorf lifted the shield into the arrow's path, sending it deflecting harmlessly into the back wall of the throne room. The first blast of black magic hit Lector in the shoulder, wrenching the bow from his grasp and knocking him onto his back. The burst of dark energy tore open his shoulder, ripping through plate armor, chainmail, tunic, flesh, and bone. Lector's shoulder was blown open and he gritted his teeth in pain. But Gannondorf still had another ready shot and if he didn't move he was doomed. Gannondorf fired but Lector was ready to move and rolled sideways, the energy beam streaked past him and smashed into the marble floor, blowing a small crater in the floor and setting ablaze the carpet that lead from the throne to the doors at the back. Pain surged through Lector's shoulder as he stood unsteadily to his feet, he could tell he was bleeding out; warm blood formed a sticky layer between his chainmail, tunic, and skin as it ran down beneath his battered armor.

Gannondorf dropped Lector's shield on the floor, and picked up the white sword from where it lay along the east wall of the room. Gannondorf toyed with the sword in his right hand while charging another energy ball in his left hand. He loved using magic, loved seeing the looks on people's faces just before he smote them with his power. He absorbed the defensive magic the white sword had stolen from him earlier and once again became invincible. The silver arrows would no longer be able to penetrate his magic defenses. Lector stumbled over to where his bow had come to rest and drew another arrow. Because of his wounded shoulder, he wouldn't be able to pull it back very far, but he didn't need to. Gannondorf watched with mild interest as the knight prepared for what it appeared would be another attack. He finished charging the energy ball in his hand and then launched it at Lector, fully expecting to kill him. Lector pulled back the bow to half draw, as far back as he could pull it with his mangled shoulder, and then shot, aiming for the hand Gannondorf used to fire the magical spell. The ball of darkness hit the edge of the silver arrow and incinerated it, but the arrow deflected the blast up towards the ceiling where it collided with the limestone roof. There was an explosion as the curse hit the roof and a whole section of the roof caved in, burying the knight in rubble. Gannondorf did not know, nor did he really care if Lector was dead or alive, he wouldn't be getting in his way anymore at the very least.

Gannondorf didn't hang around long enough to figure it out anyways; he had a princess to catch. He didn't waste any more time in running out of the throne room, white sword in hand, and then into the outer castle where the war had just begun…

((()))

Link felt someone slam into him from behind and instinctively tried to spin around and punch whoever had done it in the face. Link had acquired this instinct over the course of many years of being Mido's favorite target for bullying, but whoever had hit him had done so quickly and stealthily enough that he didn't have time to react to the hit. His face hit the ground hard and he tasted mud forced into his mouth by the impact. Link wondered what possibly could have gotten to him, they were in an open field with great visibility in all directions, had it come from under the ground or something? Whatever it was, it had him pinned down and there was no way he could reach his sword. Whoever it was grabbed him by the shoulder and Link was turned over, still wondering who it was that had tackled him. He looked up in shock as he saw that the person holding him down was none other than Sophia herself. Navi had been right the whole time, he shouldn't have trusted her. He grimaced and tried to hide the shock in his eyes as Sophia pressed her knife against his throat.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to do this, but I don't have a choice, hand over the spiritual stones so I don't have to kill you." Sophia said. Her hands were shaking, Link had no idea what she meant by having no choice, but it didn't matter, she was the one holding the knife, his sword was too long of a draw, he would be long dead before he could ever draw it. But there was another option, his right arm was pinned down at his side near his pouch, he reached down into it and wrapped his fingers around a Deku Nut. Just then, Navi fluttered out from beneath his cap, wondering what was going on. When she saw the scene playing out in the middle of the open field, things began to get crazy.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted you, you're a Gerudo, aren't you!" Navi accused. In response to this, Sophia changed. Her skin darkened and her ears shortened to the rounded shape common among the Gerudo. Link's frown deepened as Sophia pressed the knife slightly harder against his neck.

"Yes, I am. Trust me, I really do like you and didn't want it to be this way, but I have no choice; I was given a direct order by Gannondorf himself to kill you and take all three spiritual stones at the earliest opportunity. I'm bending my orders as far as I can by not killing you, so hand over the spiritual stones so I don't have to do that." Sophia replied. Link glared evilly at her as he got his hand inside his pouch and began searching around for a Deku Nut, his fingers closed around one and he got ready to yank it out and stun her with it.

"Trust you? You betrayed me; I trusted you once and you betrayed me. If you want the spiritual stones, you're going to have to kill me." Link shot back, preparing to strike, there was no way he was going to be able hit her with it without getting his throat cut as long as the knife was still pressed against his neck, he needed something, a diversion of some sort.

"I didn't want to! I swear I don't like this any more than you, but it's my only choice. I am just as helpless as you right now! Please understand; please don't make me do this!" Sophia shouted. A lone tear trailed out of her right eye and streaked down the side of her face.

"It's the only way you're gonna get it, so you might as well get it over with!" Link growled back. He could see in her eyes she didn't have it in her to kill him in cold blood, she wasn't going to kill him until he had a chance of killing her in turn.

"Please! I wanted you to show me the forest Link! Gannondorf isn't a horrible king! He'll understand that you're doing exactly what I'm doing right now! You're just following orders, yours are from Zelda, mine are from him! He will understand, he will let you free, he has no need to kill you!" Sophia cried. Link's face contorted with rage when she said that he was just taking orders the same as she was.

"You think I'm here because someone told me to be here! I'm not here for someone else's war! I'm here for my war! Gannondorf killed the guardian of the forest! He killed the Great Deku Tree! I'M HERE FOR REVENGE!" Link shouted. Sophia was taken aback, she had always thought of Link as the kind to be doing something for the good of others, not the kind to be taking revenge against the Dark Lord. Navi interjected back into the conversation.

"You're serving a mad man! You're going to destroy Hyrule!" Navi shouted, with that she launched a pitiful attack on Sophia, but it was enough. Navi flew at her face with the speed of a pellet from Link's slingshot, hitting her square in the forehead. Sophia was shocked and instinctively lifted the knife away from Link and swung it at the tiny fairy, who easily dodged the small blade of her weapon. Link seized the opportunity. He yanked his right arm free and threw the Deku nut in her face, the flash causing temporary blindness and confusion. Before she could recover, Link grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the knife and tried to twist it out of her grasp, but her grip was far too strong for him to break. Navi continued to repeatedly hit her in the head while Link attempted to wrest the knife from her hands, but she had a death-grip on it and would not easily let go. She managed to get her wrist free from Link's grip and swung the knife at him, missing by millimeters. Link had no choice either, he couldn't disarm her, and while he could outrun her to the castle, he didn't want to bet on his speed, so he drew his sword and shield, and prepared to do battle with the Gerudo spy.

"Sophia! You're outmatched, surrender, just walk away!" Link shouted as he raised his weapons.

"I can't fail my king!" Sophia replied.

"Don't try…" Link warned, he didn't get to finish, because Sophia charged at him, knife in hand, forcing him to do the unthinkable. She forced him to kill her. She stabbed her knife downward at his head and he easily blocked it with his shield, then he swung his own sword at her, slicing a deep wound all the way across her torso. Pink arterial blood sprayed from the massive wound and Sophia fell down, her eyes wide. Somehow she hadn't believed that the boy she had gotten to know would be capable of what he had just done. The wound was massive, several inches deep and over a foot long, her entire torso had been ripped open by the point of his sword.

"I trusted you…" Link stated sadly "… you betrayed me...". Sophia felt the blood draining out of her chest, soaking into the dirt at her feet, dripping from the hem of her tunic. She remained standing for a moment before falling to her knees, then sideways onto the ground. Link glared down at her with utter contempt, but he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She had tricked him and tried to kill him, but he still felt something in his heart that told him to have mercy on her.

Link reached into his pouch and pulled out the bottle of red potion, he wondered if it was too late to save her. But she had tried to kill him, and if he didn't let her die, she could try again later. So he did the unthinkable, he put the bottle back in his pouch and turned his back on her.

"Now I'm going to betray you… I'm Sorry" Link said, he put away his sword and shield and began to walk away, not looking back. Sophia's eye's grew even wider and tears began to streak down her face as Link walked away, leaving her to die where she lay. She deserved to die for what she had done; she had gained his trust entirely for the purpose of betraying it. Link had fallen for her lies once; he wouldn't give her the chance to betray him twice. She began to slowly bleed to death, her vision turning black around the edges; the sky seemed to turn blood red. She saw Link, the boy she had betrayed outlined against the crimson sky. He walked away, leaving her alone to die.

"Link… Please… I'm Sorry." Sophia mumbled, loss of blood slurring her speech. Link stopped for a moment, but didn't turn to face her.

"It's too late." Link replied coldly. He once again felt the nagging sensation that he should help her, but there was no time, he had already wasted enough time fighting her and if he stopped he wouldn't make it to Hyrule castle in time. He couldn't do anything for her. He continued walking away, Navi drifting sadly at his side.

Sophia had never expected her life to end this way, and when she reflected on it as the darkness began to engulf her, she couldn't help but realize that it was entirely her fault, she had betrayed the only one who could have saved her life, and he had killed her. It couldn't have ended any other way.

Link disappeared over a hill and Sophia lost all means of gauging time. It had been late afternoon when he left her, now it was fading into night, she no longer knew or cared of time and how it would flow. She was surprised she was even still alive though she could feel the loss of blood getting to her. She was on the edge of death. Night fell and she continued to just stare blankly at the land and sky, looking upon the moon for possibly the last time, something suddenly drew her attention from the direction of the castle. She managed with great effort to turn her head and look over to the castle, where a battle had been raging for hours. She had lost interest in it, not wanting it to be the last thing she saw. A spire jutted far above the other buildings of castle town, it was the spire of the temple of time. A blue pillar of fire hundreds of feet tall suddenly burst from the spire and lit up the sky. Blue light filled the field and an eerily beautiful light shot into the sky.

Sophia didn't know much about the full details of Link's quest, but she knew enough to know what that light meant. Link had reached the temple and drawn the master sword. She could have been with him there, helping him, disregarding Gannondorf and instead joining the good fight. But she had failed him, and ultimately failed herself by choosing the wrong side. And that choice had now claimed her.

Sophia looked once again up to the moon, and screamed. She screamed so loud she was sure she would make her own ears bleed. It was so loud it must have been heard even over the din of battle in the castle, as the last of Hyrule's brave knights were vanquished. She had failed. She screamed for a full fifteen seconds, not stopping for breath, and then let the darkness overtake her. She had failed…


	18. The Sword and the War

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 18: The Sword and the War

Link had to force himself to keep running towards the castle, to not turn back and help Sophia. He didn't understand why mortally wounding and almost certainly killing her felt so bad to him. He had killed dozens of unintelligent creatures since his quest had begun mere days ago. But Sophia had been different, not just another enemy, but an enemy who had worked her way into his heart. It wasn't murder; if he hadn't killed her she would have killed him. But he still felt this horrible dread in his gut that he had done something so morally and physically wrong that he almost felt obliged to go back and make sure she didn't die.

But he couldn't he was already out of time. Maybe if she was still alive after the battle was over he could go back and help her, but right now it was too late. For now, he would just have to pretend she was dead. Link crossed the top of the final hill and saw something flaming streak through the twilit sky. Night was falling; he would be fighting in the dark. The flaming object reached the top of its arch and then began to fall back down towards castle town. Link watched as the object roared over the castle walls and demolished a five floor building somewhere in the center of the town. He wondered how many people had been killed by it. Definitely a few.

When he crossed the top of the hill, Link saw four more of the fireballs fly into the air and saw where they had come from. About half a mile from the castle was the Gerudo army; they were holding their ground just outside of the range of the Hylian longbows and were bombarding the city with boulders slicked in burning oil fired from catapults. Link didn't stop running, but watched in awe as the catapults fired and reloaded, literally demolishing the castle. One boulder hit the castle walls and broke into several pieces. The boulder must have weighed more than a ton but it had merely knocked loose a few marble blocks on the exterior of the wall. The wall was too thick to be destroyed that way, but the wooden buildings of castle town were fair game, the entire town was ablaze.

As Link drew nearer the castle, he saw another boulder hit near the top of the walls and fling flaming oil onto one of the guards stationed along the top of the wall. He screamed in agony as his clothing caught fire, then ran in aimless circles for a few moments, flailing his arms over his head before diving over the side of the castle into the moat. A second boulder hit the wall over where he had fallen into the moat and then crushed him underwater. Link couldn't believe this was happening. The castle walls remained unyielding through the bombardment but the number of soldiers and civilians to defend those walls was slowly dwindling, every shot from the catapults killed more, until they began hitting in the same spots where everyone had already been killed.

The smoke rising from within the walls blocked out the setting sun, turning it into an inflamed red ball of light. Link remembered being here, in his dream. The sun blocked out by acrid smoke, the drawbridge up, burning oil floating on the moat. Link experienced a moment of euphoria as the drawbridge suddenly fell. It dropped rapidly, the chains cut and trailing behind it. The thick wooden timbers of the drawbridge snapped in two as they hit the stopper at the edge of the moat and the broken drawbridge formed a V, dipping underwater in the middle. Link saw what had cut the chains, two Gerudos equipped with heavy cutters stood on either side of the drawbridge, they had lowered it in a way that made sure that it couldn't be raised again. They were soon cut down by a hail of arrows from further inside the castle but the damage had been done, the Gerudo had breached the castle walls.

A horse neighed from within the castle and Link turned. Everything was unfolding just as it had in the nightmare that had haunted his dreams since the night before his quest began. A moment later a white horse with two riders came into view, which Link recognized as Impa and Zelda. Zelda held the ocarina of time tightly in her right hand and gripped the horse's mane tightly with her left as it leapt over the moat. Once they were on the other side Zelda turned and threw the ocarina over her shoulder into the moat. Link turned and watched as they rode away. He saw a worried look on Zelda's face and then she was too far away for him to see her face. Link already knew the source of her worry. He watched as their horse turned towards Kakariko and disappeared over a hill, then turned to find himself facing Gannondorf. His horse leapt the moat and stopped mere feet away from Link. He was just the same as he had been in the dream except for now he had a gleaming silver sword that stood in stark contrast to his black armor and fiery red hair, obviously stolen from a Hylian.

"You must have seen the two that just passed by here on a white horse, where did they go! Tell me!" Gannondorf shouted. Link had already seen this happen more than once in his dreams, but he still couldn't believe it was actually happening now. Gannondorf glared at him impatiently, waiting for an answer to his question.

"No!" Link shouted while drawing his sword and shield. Gannondorf looked at him for a second with a confused frown, and then began laughing as if he had just gone insane. Link held his ground and braced his shield against his shoulder, ready for what was about to happen.

"You think you can stand against me, boy" Gannondorf laughed maniacally, slowly gathering a ball of black energy in his hand in a carefree manner. Link assumed a combat stance; ready for what he already knew was coming. A look of rage crossed Gannondorf's face and he fired the ball of energy directly at Link. Link lifted his shield and the ball of black magic collided with it; nothing happened for a moment, and then Link was thrown backward by a sudden detonation that felt as if he had been blown away by every bomb flower in Death Mountain. The explosion would have killed Link if it had hit him directly, even with the shield absorbing the explosion he was flung backward more than ten feet and slid in the muddy turf, leaving his entire back covered in brown dirt and grass. Link slowly rose back to his feet and found Gannondorf glaring down at him from his mount.

"Fool! Do you have any idea who you are messing with! I am Gannondorf Dragmire, king of the Gerudo, and soon I shall rule the world!" Gannondorf shouted before riding off after Impa and Zelda. Link knew that if Gannondorf hadn't been in such a hurry, he'd probably be dead right now, but the Dark Lord's haste had saved him, and he would live to fight another day.

Link immediately set himself on finding the ocarina. He had seen where it plunged into the water and ran over to the edge of the moat to try and spot it. He didn't see anything for a moment. But then Navi flew out from under his hat and took a look for herself.

"It's directly under me." Navi stated after making circles over the moat a few times. She stopped moving over a spot near the far side of the moat and began bobbing up and down with the motion of the waves.

"Hurry, it's near a water pipe." Navi warned. Link jumped into the water and dove down where Navi had indicated. He opened his eyes in the oily water and saw the Hylian guard who had caught fire crushed under the boulder to his right. The ocarina of time was about a foot from a grate, slightly luminous in the dark waters of the moat. Link avoided the guard's broken spear as he swam past him and then reached out and grabbed the ocarina. With the instrument in hand, he swam over to the broken drawbridge and climbed up on it. He put the ocarina in his pouch and stepped inside the castle.

The smell of smoke and burning oil was heavy in the air, and Link immediately found himself face to face with a phalanx of Hylian soldiers, their spears all trained on him, with their support archers also aiming down at him.

"Let the kid pass" someone at the center of the phalanx shouted. The formation parted just wide enough for him to pass through and he entered the burning remains of castle town. There was fire everywhere. People were running about with buckets of water trying to put it out, but there was too much fire and not enough people to put it out. The sky was rapidly growing darker with a combination of the setting of the sun and the filling of the air with smoke. Link took off his hat and soaked it in the water in a ditch and covered his mouth with it. He breathed through the soaked cloth to keep the smoke out of his breath but he could still feel the weight of the smoke in his lungs, making his movement labored. It felt like being inside a volcano, and he spoke from experience.

At several points, Link saw soldiers and citizens armed with improvised weapons fighting Gerudo that had got into the castle before the battle had begun. Link did his best to avoid the street fights and kept moving towards the temple of time, on the far side of the plaza. Originally Link had planned on cutting across the plaza but when he got there his mind was completely changed. The city square was packed with civilians trying to reach the inner castle and soldiers fighting off Gerudos. Thankfully the bombardment from the catapults had ceased, but only because the Gerudo army was moving again, this time towards the wide open gates of the outer castle.

Link circled around the plaza with his sword drawn; the arm that would normally hold his shield was occupied holding his hat over his mouth. Navi flew ahead of him and made sure the way was clear before he went up a street, he was too close now to be killed by something stupid like running into an angry mob. Link continued up a street adjacent to the plaza until he was only one block from the temple of time. The one good thing about the layout of Hyrule castle was its grid pattern, which made it harder to get lost. Still, none of the streets looked remotely similar to when he had last seen them, since now they were filled with rubble and ruins and sometimes completely devoid of people. Everyone was trying to get in to the inner castle or out of castle town, so there were very few people left in the middle ground.

Link had avoided running into trouble until he was about a block from the temple of time. That was when he ran into a fully armed gang of Gerudo warriors. They ran out of a building on the right side of the street, seven of them, fully armed with scimitars and bows. One of them saw Link and soon they had him circled. They were pointing at him and laughing as if they found it hilarious that a kid like Link was armed and trying to fight against them. Link growled and dropped his soaked hat, pulling his shield off his back and preparing to fight. The one of the Gerudo kicked him from behind and knocked him onto his stomach, and then another one kicked him in the right side of his ribs. One came from the left to deliver a third kick and Link lashed out with his sword, slicing her leg wide open beneath the knee. The Gerudo warrior screamed and then lifted her sword to attack Link. Link rolled away and blocked a scimitar with his shield while striking out a second time with his sword. His second strike was blocked but he had managed to force his way out of the circle. One of the Gerudo came at him with her sword raised and Link prepared to fight, but before she reached him, an arrow flew down the street and into her head, protruding several inches out the other side and killing her instantly. The other Gerudos spun in the direction the arrow had come from and one of them was greeted by an identical arrow in the face. The other five Gerudos scattered, leaving Link standing in the street. He picked up his hat and spotted where the arrows had come from. The hunter from the inn, from the night he had spent in castle town was about a block away with his bow out. Navi was flying over his right shoulder, she had gone out to make sure there weren't any enemies headed for Link, had seen him get ambushed, and called the hunter for help. Link nodded his thanks from down the street and Navi flew back to Link at top speed.

"Those were the only Gerudos in the way, there are no more between here and the temple of time." Navi explained quickly. Link heard a horn blow near the front of the castle and climbed atop the ruins of a building to see what was happening. The Gerudo army had reached the front of the castle and were throwing everything they had at the front gates. Hylian knights were running down every street to bolster the defenses at the front, but Link could already tell it wouldn't be enough. The knights were taking out two Gerudo for every one of their own lost, but the Gerudo outnumbered them five to one, there would be no victory. Link watched the battle for only a few seconds before continuing towards the temple of time. He didn't know how long the defense would hold and he didn't want to be around to see them fail. He ran up the street and to the front of the temple of time.

The building was the largest in all of castle town. Its spire towered hundreds of feet above all the other buildings and as a result it had become an unofficial target for the Gerudo catapults. Somehow, the building had remained completely undamaged despite being hit twice by the catapults, a third boulder had landed in the yard and imbedded itself in the ground near the pathway that led to the temple's entrance. Link wondered if there was some sort of defensive magic that kept the catapults from doing any damage to the sacred place. Link ran up to the sacred temple and grabbed the handle on one of the massive vaulted doors that towered over his head. He pushed it open and the sound of the ancient hinges grinding open echoed in the chamber beyond.

The entire inside of the building appeared to be a single massive room. A red carpet stretched from the doors Link had just opened all the way to an altar near the back of the room. The air smelled old and the floor was covered in a thick layer of dust. It was apparent that nobody had entered the temple for a long time. But still, the place seemed to almost radiate grandiose. Navi flew in wide circles around the perimeter of the room and then stopped at the altar in the back. Link could tell that the fairy was amazed by what she saw.

"This place is amazing, it's even larger than I thought it would-" Navi was cut off by a loud booming noise coming from behind him. He turned and saw that the door he had opened to enter had slammed shut behind him, locking him inside. He ran back to the door and tried to open it but it would not budge.

"We're not supposed to leave yet" Navi stated plainly. Link turned back towards the rear of the temple and walked up the red carpet all the way to the altar. There were three hollows and an inscription that read _Ye who owns 3 Spiritual Stones Stand with the Ocarina of Time And play the Song of Time._

Link opened his pouch and pulled out the spiritual stone of the forest. The Kokiri Emerald glowed such a bright shade of green that it cast its glow on the walls of the furthest corners of the room. A low humming noise was emitted from the stone as he placed in the first slot of the altar. Link then withdrew the second stone, the Goron Ruby, and set it respectively in the third slot, followed in turn by the Zora Sapphire. When they were all placed the single high note grew in strength until Link couldn't even hear what Navi was trying to say to him.

Finally, Link withdrew the ocarina of time.

He didn't know what song to play; Zelda had never had a chance to tell him. But as he pulled out the ocarina, he began to feel a burning sensation in his forehead, and his view of the room changed. It was the same temple, but Zelda sat alone on the floor at the center of the room with the ocarina of time. All of the color had drained from the room and everything had become black and white. Link walked over to where Zelda sat on the floor and she looked up at him, holding the ocarina of time in her hands, the same ocarina that he too was impossibly holding.

"By the time you hear what I have to say, I fear I won't be around anymore. I waited as long as I could, but I had to go. I must take comfort in the knowledge that you will know the way forward." Zelda said. Link was about to ask her what she meant, but was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to respond, that she was just a vision in his mind. Zelda lifted the ocarina to her lips and played a short and mystical melody. Link found that he was entranced by the melody and became lost in his mind for a moment, somehow knowing immediately how to play the song despite not watching the fingerings on Zelda's ocarina. Without consciously deciding to do it, he lifted his own ocarina to his lips and joined in on the melody. When he had played it through once, he closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was standing back at the altar where he had been before Zelda had appeared.

"That melody, how did you know…?" Navi started. Before she could finish what she was saying. The seemingly solid wall at the back of the room split in two and slid aside, revealing a long hallway that ended in a massive hexagonal chamber. Navi gasped in surprise and Link put away the ocarina back in his pouch. The hallway beyond was poorly lit, but Link could see enough to not have to worry about tripping over things. The center piece of this new area was immediately apparent though, mainly because it stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to the poorly lit surroundings of the chamber it rested upon.

Somehow a force of magic had decided to spite the fact that night had fallen and golden sunlight streamed in through the window at the back of the chamber beyond, illuminating a raised platform in the center. Upon that raised platform was a pedestal, and sticking forth from that pedestal was a beautifully crafted weapon, a broadsword with a blade of gleaming steel and a handle designed to appear like the two wings of the eagle of the triforce, which glowed a striking shade of cobalt. The entire length of the weapon was nearly four feet between the handle and the blade and Link didn't even want to guess how much it would weigh. Would he even be strong enough to wield such a weapon?

"It's that legendary blade… the master sword." Navi bawled in awe. Link slowly circled around the altar, putting the Ocarina of Time back in his pouch, then ventured into the chamber beyond. As he entered the hallway, he found that it was not empty as he had thought from the hallway, inset into either wall were shelves filed with clothing amazingly similar to his own. He looked down at himself to inspect his own clothing. It was filthy, torn, and not even worth wearing anymore. These new clothes appeared pristine, but also larger than what he currently wore. He walked over to the first shelf, where a pair of beige pants lay folded next to a white shirt.

_Lusmos alko ban Hylius… nakatami klumoso._

Link heard a strangely alien voice inside his head. An image of a blue woman with a diamond in her chest appeared in front of him. She was transparent, he could still see the shelf behind her, Link figured she was some sort of ghost of the past, a forgotten memory of Hyrule's ancient legacy.

"That was ancient Hylian, she says 'welcome Hylian of the Light World… new master', and I'm not sure what she means…" Navi stated.

_Perhaps it would help if I spoke in your dialect, master._

_By the time a new master receives this message, there is a 87% chance that my consciousness will have faded with time, so is the purpose of my message, to assist my master with a few brief words. Without my conscious presence I will be unable to answer any question you might ask, so I request that you listen to what I have to say and then I will be gone._

_Your arrival suggests with 99% certainty that Hyrule once again has reached a time of turmoil, and that you are the new chosen hero and ergo my master. Beyond this corridor you will find the blade of my master, designated the 'Master Sword'. It is part of my final duty to relinquish the sword to you._

_In order to use this weapon, you must obtain the uniform of the ancient chosen one, which has already been gathered for you. By donning the uniform of the ancient one who's garb inspired the wear of the Kikwi who evolved over time into their present Kokiri forms which you now bear, you shall seal a covenant of blood between you and the ancient one which will allow you to draw the Master Sword._

_But before you proceed, Master, I have one final warning, in your present form; you may be unable to wield the Master Sword. Should the Master Sword find you not yet fit to wield it; it may alter your physical form or use other methods to make you capable of wielding it. If my conscious has faded by this time, I will have no control and no way of predicting what method the blade will choose. As you are now, I calculate a 74% chance of this occurring._

_That is all that I had to say. Thank you master, it was my greatest honor to serve with your forefather, and it is another to have served you. I bid thee farewell. Goodbye._

Link stood silently for a moment, wondering how long that message had been waiting for him. Hyrule was at least a few thousand years old and Link knew that it took hundreds of thousands of years for species to change in the way the message had described.

He looked once again at the shelves that contained the garb of the hero. Without even picking them up he could tell they were too large, but he had listened to what the ghostly figure had said and knew that he had to take the uniform. In any event, aside from a thick layer of dust it was far cleaner than the clothes he currently wore. His kokiri tunic had been worn, shredded, and bled into for over a week; he needed to change clothes anyways. He removed his ruined clothes and in the dim light of the hidden corridor changed into the ancient uniform.

First were the pants, they went up well past his waist, but thankfully came with a belt which he fastened tightly at the proper level, leaving the legs of his pants hanging down well below his ankles.

Next was the white shirt, it was also far too large but he was able to tuck it into the pants and roll up the sleeves to make it passable. Leather laces ran from bottom to top and he tied them as tight as he could, but the shirt was still too large. At least the loose fit was comfortable.

The third item had been an unexpected surprise, but one that would have been useful throughout his quest. A hauberk of 14 gauge chainmail designed to go down to the knees and upper arm on a fully grown person, but it hung down the better way to his calves and past his elbows, and the collar was far too large, almost falling down around his shoulders. The weight was huge in comparison to his sword and shield, at forty pounds it weighed more than three times as much as both combined. A belt woven through steel loops attached to the chainmail put half the weight on his hips and half on his shoulders so neither would become overstressed. Link tightened the belt and soon didn't feel the weight of the chainmail so much anymore.

The fourth item was a green tunic and hat identical to the ones he had worn before, though larger in size, the tunic hung down past his knees and the cap had a tendency to droop down over his eyes. He put them on over the other three items he already wore and then continued to the fifth shelf.

The fifth shelf held a pair of boots and gauntlets, both made from solid leather, thick enough that Link bet they could stop a knife. He put on the boots, tucking the pants legs into them so that they appeared to be more the correct size, and then tied them tightly before putting on the gauntlets, which went all the way up to his elbows and were really much too large for him. Then he continued to the sixth and final shelf.

This shelf held a bandolier with a sword sheath and a full sized Hylian shield on it. The shield was larger than the one he had gotten from Impa almost a week before, and seemed to have more weight as well. The sheath was the correct size for the master sword, a little more than three feet in length, and was worn the same way as the sheath for the kokiri sword, though due to its length Link was not sure if he could draw the sword that way.

Link put on the final part of the uniform and brushed off a thick layer of dust that had accumulated over the ages. He stepped into the center of the corridor and turned to face the Master Sword. It had been waiting here for a millennia accompanied by the clothes of its destined companion. Navi looked over Link with his new uniform and equipment. Link wove his pouch onto the belt before getting ready to draw the sword.

"It's too much; you'll never be able to run with that much weight on you." Navi stated, brushing off nearly microscopic bits of dust as she hovered in short circles around him. She turned towards the waiting Master Sword and gazed upon it longingly.

"But I guess you have to for the sword to accept you." Navi stated as Link walked up the shallow hexagonal pyramid towards the pedestal that held the sword. He stepped into the light descending from the stained glass window in the back and felt the warmth of the light spread through his body and in a way rejuvenated him. The magical light of the single window seemed to radiate a magical power that he now absorbed into his body and could wield at will. He felt the light making him stronger, building energy in his soul and gathering with in him.

"Link… when you draw that weapon, it will change you forever. Though you will always have the power to return it to this place, your mind will be forever changed by what you see. You will never be a child again. This is the fate that all heroes are doomed to. Once you take up the legendary blade you will never be able to turn back to what you once were. Up until now everything you have encountered has been reserved, held back in a way. After you truly become a hero, your childhood will be irreparable." Navi said. Link closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath, feeling the power surging through his veins. He had stepped into something sacred, and there was no turning back. He reached out left hand first and grabbed the cold steel hilt of the weapon. Cobalt light blazed forth as he tightened his grip and grabbed the weapon with both hands. Light exploded upwards from the cut on the marble pedestal as he pulled and the blade slid effortlessly from the stone.

A curtain of golden light engulfed Link and Navi as he lifted the sword higher and higher into the air. A wall of blue flame formed on the edge of the platform and rose to the top of the domed temple hall, encircling Link in a protective field of fire. The golden energy that radiated from the Master Sword filled this protected area and obscured everything within from view. A doorway lay open in the center of this pillar, but what it showed was not what was hidden inside, but a different place the size of a city filled with platforms of light. In the center of this new place was a shimmering relic which had lain forgotten by the world for many thousands of years. The golden relic.

In the center of the unveiled sacred realm, lay the triforce, waiting for someone to arrive and claim it.

((()))

Captain Lector awoke in a pile of rubble. The white sword had been taken but he still had the silver arrows. Unfortunately, they were useless without the other half of the pair. He had failed in his mission to kill Gannondorf before he could wage war on Hyrule. He tried to rise to his feet quickly and collapsed back into the rubble heap. He was severely injured, possibly too severely to be helped. He heard the sound of catapults bombarding the castle and a moment later one crashed through the ceiling of the throne room, crushing the throne and the body of the king beneath it. Lector swore under his breath and tried again to rise to his feet, this time more slowly. He felt blood flowing down the side of his head from where he had been hit by a falling rock. He wasn't sure how long exactly he had been out but it couldn't have been long, the bombardment was still going and a little bit of daylight still flowed in though the windows of the throne room.

Once he was on his feet, he gathered all of the silver arrows he could spot on the ground and put them in the quiver on his back along with the bow. He found an undamaged sword lying on the floor and he picked it up and put it in the sheath at his side. His right arm hung limply at his side from his mangled shoulder and he thanked the goddesses that he was ambidextrous. He limped out of the throne room and found the inner castle drawbridge still down with refugees pouring in from the outer castle. Thick plumes of smoke rose into the air from the burning city below and Lector could see that the Gerudo army had already penetrated the outer wall. There was still fighting going on down there, a force of about two hundred were holding the gate to the outer castle trying to keep the Gerudo army out, but they were fighting a losing battle. About four hundred soldiers remained in the inner castle and about four thousand Gerudo still marched their way. Lector could already tell there would be no victory.

"Captain, they've breached the outer castle and have us outnumbered ten to one, what is our battle plan?" a lieutenant called from near the front of the Hylian phalanx that had formed inside the gates to the inner castle.

"Who is in command here?" Lector asked.

"You are sir; all of our other senior officers were down in the city or were taken out by the bombardment. You're the last one" the lieutenant replied. Lector shouted a curse so loud that it startled everyone within a good sized radius even over the sounds of battle coming from down in the city. Lector looked around for something they could use to their advantage, but couldn't come up with any strategy that didn't end in defeat. So with no other options left, he said the unthinkable.

"To stand and fight here would guarantee a total loss. Our best option is to retreat and fight another day. Anyone who wishes to stay and fight may do so, but death is all that is left for us here, Hyrule is lost." Lector stated morosely. The small remnant of the army stared at the severely wounded Captain and he looked back at them with a sad expression on his face.

"We will use the hidden mountain pass behind the castle to retreat to the foothills of Death Mountain. When there we may be able to ally ourselves with the Gorons and the outlying villages and launch a counter attack. We can still win but we'll need to do it together. Gather what weapons you can and come with me. Everyone, citizens, soldiers, everyone gather everything you can find and come with me!" Lector shouted. The people who had moments before been morosely crowding into the relative safety of the castle were now gathering up armfuls of weapons. The armories carried more weapons than there were soldiers to use them, and as a result every soldier was carrying many more weapons than they could actually effectively use. This was so they wouldn't have to make more later and so they could arm the villagers they encountered.

While the citizens raided the armories and storage areas for everything worth taking, one of the medics came over and began working on his mangled shoulder. The guard had recently begun accepting women into their ranks but so far they remained mainly reserved to non-combat roles. Lector wondered which recruiting officer had let her join the medic corp. because there was no way she was old enough. Sometimes parents would falsify documents in order to let their children join the army and get shipped away early, there was no way the girl was older than 18.

Lector removed his armor and tunic and slid aside the collar of the chainmail tunic to reveal the shirt beneath matted with dark blood and shredded by metal from his armor that was blown free by the detonation of dark magic. The medic pulled out a small shiny knife with her blood covered hands and began to cut away the material of his shirt around his shoulder. Blood glistened on the medic's chainmail and stained her tunic and hair, it was evident that he was not nearly the first patient she had attended to that day. Lector didn't mind the blood of others getting in his wound for the moment, all he cared about was getting the wound closed before he bled to death. The amount of dark red arterial blood draining from the wound was so great that it had gone all the way down his tunic and pants down to his boot.

"You have two minor arteries ruptured by this wound, the wound is relatively clean, I can just pick out all the bits of armor and sew the arteries shut and you'll live." The medic stated plainly. She wiped off the knife on the edge of her tunic and put it back in the sheath at her side, then pulled a pair of tweezers out of the pouch at her side. She used the tiny pliers to pick out all of the visible bits of metal and fabric in the wound before she got to work with the stitches.

"How old are you?" Lector asked. The medic seemed taken aback by the question.

"e-e-eighteen" she replied shakily. Lector shook his head with a knowing grin on his face.

"You don't need to lie to me, I joined when I was fifteen" Lector laughed. The girl looked up at him, surprised by this, and then gave him an honest reply to his earlier question.

"Sixteen" she replied.

"My name is Lector, what is yours? I'm sorry if I'm getting a bit intrusive, but this hurts a whole damn lot and I'm trying to distract myself." Lector joked grimly. The medic looked back down at his shoulder and continued working on his injury but maintained the conversation at the same time.

"Sarah… Corporal Sarah Caridian" the medic replied. Lector nodded.

"That's better than I got when I was your age, I was a private in the army of Her Grace." Lector replied. Sarah pointed out the bronze eagle on the chest plate of his armor lying on the ground beside him.

"But you're a captain now." Sarah stated. Lector felt a sharp pain in his shoulder but resisted the urge to flinch. A short spurt of blood squirted out of his shoulder onto her tunic but she didn't seem to mind it.

"That was the first artery; the second one was not hit as badly." Sarah stated, she pulled out a small clamp and attached it to something inside his shoulder. Lector knew better than to look at what she was doing. Every time he had ever seen someone look at themselves while they were receiving field dressings, they usually fainted. Sarah gritted her teeth and leaned in closer, sealing the final artery with three stitches. Once the bleeding was stopped, she pulled his skin together over the wound and sewed it shut. Lector grimaced but continued to not look down at the wound until she was done and it had become just a long and narrow line of stitches across his shoulder. Lector experimentally flexed his shoulder a little bit and then began replacing his clothing and armor over it when he was satisfied with it. He was still dizzy from the blood loss but he wasn't losing any more for the moment. Sarah reached into her pouch and produced a small vial of red potion.

"This is all I have, I woke up this morning with twenty and I wouldn't give it to you if I didn't think you'd live, so please don't die, alright?"

"Alright" Lector replied. He took the vial and pulled out the cork, downing the red potion and returning the vial when he was done. Such a small amount would only speed up the healing process by about triple, but that made it three times better than going without. Lector had grown too used to having a surplus of it, now he knew what it felt like to be running out. He noticed that Sarah didn't have a sword, just a dagger strapped to her right boot.

"Do you have combat training?" Lector asked. Sarah thought for a second and then nodded. Lector took off his sword belt and held it out to her. She pushed it back towards him, motioning him to keep it.

"There are plenty of these lying around; I'll have a scar to remember you by, now I need to give you something so you'll remember me. There are plenty of swords lying around, I'll just grab another one" Lector remarked. Sarah took the sword and strapped it onto her right hip, drawing it and testing the weight before putting it back and getting ready to abandon the castle.

"Captain, we have all armories emptied and accounted for… I and thirty men have decided we will stay behind to make the castle appear defended. Once they break through the defense we put up we'll surrender but it should buy you at least an hour to get through the mountain pass. You can blow it up behind you and they'll never figure out where you went." The lieutenant from before said. Lector hadn't noticed earlier but a green pin shaped like a sword was attached to either strap of his chest/back plate. The lieutenant was a member of The Chosen of Farore, elite infantry, if anyone could defend a castle with thirty men, it was him.

"You do us proud lieutenant. Thank you" Lector thanked him, patting him on the shoulder before turning towards the huge crowd of civilians and knights gathered in the castle's main hall.

"Everybody who is leaving, please come with me now, we are out of time!"

Just as Lector shouted this, the sound of an explosion like they had never heard before filled the air and a blue glow filled the hall, filtering in through the barred windows high upon the stone walls. Lector ran over to the still downed drawbridge and looked for the source of the light. It was fairly evident the moment Lector saw it though, the source of the mysterious occurrence was the temple of time.

The rear spire of the temple had emitted a pillar of blue fire that shot from the ground into the deep darkness of Nayru's night sky. The eerie glow of the temple's light was cast over many miles, well beyond the walls of the castle; it must have been visible from hundreds of miles away. Lector stared in awe at the phenomenon for a few moments before remembering where he was and getting back on task. The light had also illuminated the city below, where the last knights outside of the inner castle had fallen and the Gerudo army was now marching through the burnt out city towards them, their window of opportunity was closing quickly.

"Move!"

((()))

Zelda and Impa rode on through the dark of night when a sudden explosion of light filled the otherwise dark Hyrule field with an eerie blue glow. The fires of castle town were dwarfed by a pillar of blue flame that rose as far as the eye could see into the sky, past the black smoke and the stars hidden by their burning cloak. They did not stop to look, Gannondorf had lost their trail but they didn't want to give him a chance to catch up. Zelda stared back at the rising column of blue fire and watched as it made eerie shadows dance all across Hyrule field. A pillar of light so bright would light the farthest corners of Hyrule, possibly even beyond.

Zelda knew what the beacon meant, it was a signal the all of Hyrule that a new hero of legend had been chosen. Link had made it to the Master Sword and had drawn the legendary blade; The Hero of Time had arisen. Zelda stared at the pillar of light for a few moments when suddenly a blood curdling scream drew her attention to the right. In the unnatural light of the Temple of Time's beacon, Zelda spotted a shadowed figure laying on the ground about fifty yards to their right. Though their vision wasn't very good in the dim glow, both Zelda and Impa could easily recognize the shape as a Hylian girl. Zelda pointed to her and Impa turned her horse towards the figure.

"We don't have time" Impa warned as Zelda dismounted next to the girl who was now unconscious and laying on her back on the ground. Her abdomen was sliced open, it appeared to be a sword cut, and it was deep. The grass around her was slicked with blood and her limp hands covered the wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Well then, we'll make time!" Zelda shouted at her. Impa gritted her teeth and looked back to see if Gannondorf had managed to follow them. She spotted the silhouette of Gannondorf riding back towards the castle. Apparently he had turned around when the beacon had risen from the Temple of Time. Impa didn't have any way of making more time but Link had just done so for her, Gannondorf wasn't after them any more.

"Link just made time; we still can't be out in the field after dark. The stalchilds…" Impa began. She was cut off by the sound of sifting soil to her right. She drew her dagger and spun sideways to find herself face to face with a stalchild. Before it could come at her she sliced its head cleanly off with her dagger. The skull rolled away and rest of the skeleton stumbled towards her before collapsing in a heap at her feet.

Zelda spotted a knife lying in the grass next to the girl and she picked it up. It matched a sheath strapped under her left arm but Zelda wasn't quite ready to give an unknown person a weapon. She tucked the small weapon into the sash of her dress and grabbed a blanket from the saddle bags of the horse. She folded the blanket over several times and then placed it on top of the injury. She pulled the blanket tightly over the sword cut and tied a knot behind the torso so it would stay in place on its own. Blood still seeped from the wound into the improvised bandage but the pressure from the knot kept the bleeding down to a minimum.

"I won't be able to hold them off forever; we need to get out of here!" Impa warned to her right as Zelda finished tying the bandage over the girl's injury. Impa used her dagger to cut down another two of the skeletal stalchildren but they were rising up from beneath the ground quicker now and she wasn't sure how long she could keep it up. They were dumb, weak, and entirely lacked combat skill, but that wouldn't make a difference if she was fighting a dozen of them, they would overwhelm her with their numbers.

"Alright, I've got her bandaged, can the horse carry three?" Zelda asked. Impa looked up at the white horse and figured in her mind that it would be able to carry three a short distance, long enough to get them to the safety of Kakariko or Lon Lon Ranch.

"Maybe… Barely" Impa replied. She cut down another stalchild before helping Zelda lift the unconscious girl onto the back of the horse. Once the girl was on the front of the horse, Impa lifted Zelda onto the saddle behind the girl and then climbed up herself behind both of them. Another three stalchildren charged at them a few seconds later. Impa kicked away the nearest one and then whipped the reins of the horse before the other two could reach them.

The horse neighed a complaint but trundled forward under the weight of three riders. Impa pushed the horse as hard as she dared and they headed for the nearest safety at Kakariko Village. Impa passed her dagger forward to Zelda and instructed her to hit any stalchildren that came too close to the horse. Fortunately the horse was still able to outrun the stalchildren under the weight of the three. The cobalt beacon rising from the temple within the castle began to fade after a while, but the light of the fires burning in the city hid them from view. Impa wondered if Lector and his knights were still alive. The castle had definitely fallen, overrun by the Gerudo army, but Lector was not one to die easily, if there was any life left in him he would still be fighting to the death.

Impa looked away from the blazing castle and back towards the road ahead. She couldn't dwell on the thought of how many people had died; she had to keep her thoughts on the moment.

Hyrule Castle had fallen, they were defeated, but the war had only just begun.

((()))

Gannondorf dismounted his black steed, his iron armor clanking noisily against its self. Smoke filled the air but his glaring red eyes penetrated the haze and gazed upon the entrance to the temple of time. The beacon had just faded but Gannondorf could still see the blue light peeking between the temple doors. He walked up to the temple's doors and kicked them open with one of his massive boots. The ancient wooden doors flew open but didn't splinter as he had expected. Perhaps the temple was protected by ancient magic.

"Perfect" Gannondorf growled evilly as he saw the opened door of time at the back of the temple and beyond it the chamber that held the master sword. The platform at the center of the second chamber was filled with blue light so he could not see anything within, but it did not matter to him, because he saw exactly what he wanted. There was a hole in the pillar of light and through it he saw the entrance to the sacred realm. Gannondorf grinned evilly and stepped forward, approaching the portal. As he drew nearer his feet hit something on the floor. He looked down and found that he had stumbled upon a discarded pair of boots. Unlike everything else in the temple, they were not covered in dust. Gannondorf recognized them as belonging to the kokiri child, the one he had ordered one of his minions to kill as soon as he had all the keys to the sacred realm. Apparently his underling was dead, he couldn't care less, the kokiri child had unwittingly opened the sacred realm for him and therefore rendered killing him an unnecessary waste of time.

Gannondorf walked past the discarded clothing and equipment on the floor, past six empty shelves inset in the walls, and into the final chamber, the resting place of the legendary blade. Once he was closer to the pillar of fire he could see within it and saw the kokiri child wearing oversized clothing holding the master sword aloft above his head, protected in a blaze of fire.

"Heh heh heh, excellent, as I expected you held the keys of time." Gannondorf laughed maniacally. He wasn't sure if Link could head him while he was trapped within the pillar of blue flame, but didn't care in the least. He was taunting the frozen boy for no other purpose than his own enjoyment.

"But who would have thought that the Master Sword would have chosen you? A filthy dirty immortal child of the forest. You aren't even a Hylian, you damned mongrel! what could the goddesses have possibly seen in a worthless bag of flesh like you?" Gannondorf demanded. He stood silently for a few moments, basking in the silence of the conquered temple, before continuing to gloat over the portal to the sacred realm.

"I can't thank you enough, _kid_! Now I have direct access to the full power of the triforce…I couldn't have done it without you." Gannondorf laughed sarcastically. Once again he was greeted by silence for a few moments, when suddenly a deep voice from behind him broke the quiet.

"You do realize that you are alone here, nobody can hear you." A man stated from behind him. Gannondorf spun on his heel and found himself face to face with a squat old man in a golden robe with a crimson pattern inlaid into it. His face was freckled and wrinkled with age and his balding white hair from a crescent around the barren top of his head. Gannondorf smirked as he saw him.

"Rauru, I surmise? I would have expected to be guarding the entrance to the sacred realm." Gannondorf demeaned. Rauru was unfazed by his attitude.

"I cannot stop you from entering, but I warn you, if you attempt to take the triforce from this sacred realm, you will surely die. Not immediately but in the distant future. The method you have chosen to cement your power will unwittingly create a counterforce to it." Rauru warned. Gannondorf barred his dirty teeth at the old man and shoved him aside, marching towards the entrance to the sacred realm. Rauru hung his head low as Gannondorf stepped through the portal and into the realm.

"Goddesses, forgive me, I could not protect your greatest treasure from evil's defiling hands." Rauru murmured as he bowed his head in prayer. Gannondorf crossed a bridge of light beyond the portal and made a beeline for the triforce, hovering above the centermost island of the sacred realm. Gannondorf reached it and once again grinned evilly, reverent of his own success. He reached out towards the triforce and his hand hovered over the front of it, unsure of whether or not he could touch it. Finally, after a few seconds of deliberation, he slammed his hands down on the triforce.

Gannondorf had not expected what happened next. Golden light began to flow into his arms from the top piece of the triforce, but the other two remained unlit. Gannondorf didn't care though; he felt so much energy pouring into him, so much power.

"IT IS MINE!" Gannondorf shouted triumphantly at the top of his lungs.

"THE GOLDEN POWER IS MINE!"

And with that final shout, the triforce exploded. Gannondorf was thrown to the edge of the platform by the blast, still clutching the top piece of the triforce, which glowed an angry red in his hands. The other two pieces went flying away in opposite directions, spinning in aimless pinwheels for a few moments before flying out the portal and into the world. The third of the triforce that Gannondorf still held glowed brighter and then melted into his hands. The back of his right hand glowed a similar red color and when the light faded a triforce remained, the top shard lit, the other two a dull shade of brown.

Only one shard of the triforce ever left the temple of time. The fragment which had occupied the lower right of the triforce glowed green and the moment it had left the portal it made a U-turn and went back into the pillar of light and melted into Link's left hand. The lower left fragment of the triforce left the temple and glowed a deep shade of royal blue as it streaked through the sky headed for Kakariko Village, where it united with Zelda in a similar fashion.

Many miles away, a lone figure stood on the highest branch of the deceased Great Deku Tree. She held close to her chest a small clay ocarina with a green jewel inset into the mouth piece. She had climbed up there that night because she knew what was going to happen, she couldn't explain how she had known but she had simply heard a voice in her head that had told her that something would be happening that night. The highest point of the Great Deku Tree was the only place in the forest where one could see Hyrule Castle from and she had spent the better part of an hour getting up there. It had been worth it to see the pillar of light, and then the smaller blue light that had flown high and far to the east towards the mountain of fire. Somehow, seeing all of this made her sad, she wondered if she would see her friend again.

Saria lifted her ocarina to her lips and slowly played the song that she had taught Link, the song she had written so carefully and meticulously that now all the birds and animals of the lost woods carried on with whether she was there or not. She didn't play it the same as she usually did though; she played it slowly, sadly, taking more than a minute to finish the first verse. She lowered her ocarina and a tear streaked down her cheek, dripping off her chin and falling hundreds of feet to the ground below.

"Link, please…" She cried under her breath. She sobbed for a few moments before composing herself enough to whisper.

"Link, please… please come home."

End Book One

**...**

**A Second Quest Begins**  
><strong>Click Next Chapter<strong>


	19. The Hero of Time

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Ocarina of Time Book II

Chapter 19: The Hero of Time

Time had lost all meaning, he didn't know where he was or how he had arrived there, everything that happened since he had drawn the sword was just a blur of blue lights and a black sky. His head hurt but he wasn't sure why, and as he awoke his vision swam as if he were looking through water. His body felt different, he had changed since he had last moved. Every joint ached and every motion felt too powerful, as if he had become many times stronger than he had been before he laid his hand upon the sacred blade.

He remembered having changed into the heavy adult-sized clothing before he had drawn the sword, but now everything felt normal, aside from the weight of the chainmail, which as it was had become barely noticeable. The sword on his back had changed, no longer the dagger which he had set out on his quest with but an actual full sized broadsword, the Master Sword. His shield too seemed to have decreased in weight, though still somewhat heavy. Both shield and sword clanked against his chainmail as he rose to his feet and he scanned the room for some idea of where he had appeared.

The walls of the room were made of what appeared to be water, flowing down from a black void above, the platform he stood upon was formed of a golden Triforce with a glass center and surrounded by six small circular platforms which seemed to be floating on the surface of a platform made of the same watery substance that comprised the walls. Link spun in a circle, scanning the six multicolored platforms that surrounded his central platform. Navi fluttered out from beneath his cap and immediately moved to the green one. Looking closer, Link saw that each platform had an insignia emblazoned on its front, and he recognized the insignia of the green circle immediately. Four curved lines forming a manji against an emerald backing.

"That insignia, we've seen that before. That's the insignia that was over the door to the temple in the…"

"…Forest" the deep booming voice of a man said to the left. Link and Navi both spun towards the voice in surprise. Standing atop the gold colored of the six circles was a squat man in red and gold robes with freckles and balding white hair. A golden sash bound his robe about his wide belly and a royal purple tunic with gold trim was visible beneath at the collar. Link had never seen the man before, but was surprised by his short stature. In all his adventures he had not once seen a man shorter than he, but sure enough, there was one here, almost half a foot shorter.

"Who are you?" Link asked, eying the man wearily, his appearance had been unexpected and sort of creepy but he also didn't visually appear to be a threat. Still, Link considered his sword and Navi backed up and returned to Link's shoulder as the man spoke.

"My name is Rauru, Sage of Light and First King of the Pax Hylia." The squat man introduced himself while taking a short bow. Link continued to remain suspicious, but made an outward effort to appear less threatening.

"And your name, it should be Link, just as it has been before." Rauru stated. Link took a step back and drew his sword at the mention of his name. Rauru remained unfazed as the sword point hovered two feet from his nose. He grinned as Link took charge of the situation.

"How the hell do you know my name, and where the hell am I?" Link shouted. Rauru continued to grin as Link shouted at him.

"Your second question has a quicker answer, so I shall answer it first. Right now you are in a place known as The Chamber of the Sages. It is the center of the sacred realm which Gannondorf tainted with his impurity. As for how I know your name, that is a far more difficult question to answer, and I shall explain it as briefly as I can." Rauru stated. Link lowered his sword so it was no longer pointed at the sage, but kept it drawn and pointed at the floor.

"You are a very special child, but, you are not the first special child that has held that sword in your hand. You are actually the third to wield the master sword, and there was another who never used that blade, but instead used a less powerful weapon known as the white sword. As you may have gathered, they all bore the same name as you. They were all called Link." Rauru explained. Link continued to listen intently as Rauru explained the source of his knowledge.

"Your very existence is a result of a curse, a curse made against the first of your predecessors, ironically he and the first Zelda were actually the founders of Hyrule and that Link was its first king. The first Link vanquished a monster, the beast of the apocalypse, which was known only as Demise. Demise was no pushover; he was many times more powerful than the enemies you currently face and before his death. He placed a curse upon your ancestors that their descendants would be cursed to repeat for eternity a cycle of war and death and blood, so is recorded his actual words in the shadow temple, where Hyrule's bloody history of greed and war is written." Rauru continued.

"So, I'm cursed to die a slow and painful death?" Link asked.

"I didn't say that. You are cursed to be forever at war with the forces of evil, which does not entail a slow and painful death. But it guarantees that for a hero there will never be peace. There is always darkness, hiding, waiting to smite those who dwell in the light. You are the legendary Hero of Time and so long as there is evil on this earth, you will never have peace." Rauru warned. Link grimaced. He had expected to be done with his quest soon; to hear that the quest would consume his life was almost more than he could take.

"Why, why me, I didn't ask for this! I want to go back; I want to have a life!" Link shouted angrily. Rauru just looked at him sadly, and Link knew from the look in his eyes that there was no way he could possibly go back; it was a curse too powerful to be broken, a curse of fate.

"I'm sorry Link, but it is your destiny, you cannot avoid it. The fate of Hyrule rests on your shoulders, whether you like it or not. You could choose to abandon Hyrule and not complete your quest, but I know you won't do that." Rauru stated. Link nodded an affirmative.

"You're right. I couldn't live with myself if I backed out of this" Link groaned in acceptance.

"That is good." Rauru stated. He stepped off his platform and began pacing in circles around Link. Link turned to follow him with his vision as he moved, and the motion quickly became disorienting to him as the light of the room dappled through the solid yet liquid water platforms and played across his vision.

"Now that you wield the Master Sword, you have the ability to destroy Gannondorf, or at the very least seal him away for a long while. He's afraid of you Link, and he should be. But to defeat the armies of the Dark Lord, you're going to need a secret weapon of your own. Every Sage has the power to call to them an army of their kind. Together, all six sages could gather an army greater than any upon the face of the earth. But first the sages must be freed; they must hear their awakening call." Rauru explained.

"We can do that, where do we go first?" Navi asked.

"That is a question to be answered in your world; I cannot tell which sage requires your help first from here. My power has degraded to the point where I can no longer see into your world, I am afraid I have given you all of the help I can for the moment. But do not worry; you two are very resilient, I am sure you will find the way. Carry this, it will give you power to free the sages, and good luck" Rauru explained. He then raised his hands to the dark ceiling and a ball of golden light descended from above. When it drew near Link could see that it was really a medallion of solid gold with an aura of light radiating from it.

The medallion hovered in front of Link and he took it in his hands, and the moment he touched it, everything around him faded into darkness and he disappeared from the sacred realm…

((()))

Within the Temple of Time, Link's consciousness returned. He remained standing as he had years ago when he had drawn the Master Sword from the pedestal, but now all of his clothing fit and everything about him was as one would expect from a legendary hero. He didn't feel as energized as he had in the sacred realm though, all of his muscles ached and he felt just like he expected he should for having stood completely still for seven years.

Link sheathed the Master Sword and took a few steps before sitting down on the edge of the uppermost platform in the swath of sunlight cast by the great stained glass window at the back that eternally poured light into the sealed room, even at night. He felt the warmth of the light on his back and felt as if it were restoring his strength. He sat there for several moments before Navi piped up.

"And here I was thinking the quest would be over after all of that stuff we did back when you were a kid. We haven't even started yet!" Navi shouted. Link buried his face in his hands and groaned when she mentioned this fact.

"Don't even remind me." Link grumbled through his gauntleted hands. He sat for another minute or so before rising to his feet. Everything still ached and he wished he could sit longer, but he didn't know what condition the castle outside was in or even what time of day it was, though something told him it was very early morning and the sun had not yet risen. It was impossible to tell from inside the temple since the magical windows always were filled with sunlight.

"Some of the weapons you used when you were little may not be so useful anymore. They may be harder and maybe even impossible for you to use now that you're so big" Navi stated. She hovered around in circles above Link's head gazing upon the temple that was now identical to how they had left it years ago. Link's clothing from when he was a child had been repaired by some strange magic and sat in the same places as had the equipment he now wore had been. It was strange, seeing the temple from this side of the door of time. Surreal.

There was a sound behind him. Link tensed and his right ear twitched as he listened for further noise. Navi seemed to hear it too because she stopped moving at the exact same time and her color changed from blue to sickly yellow. There was a thumping sound behind him at the exact center of the Master Sword's pedestal and Link drew his sword while spinning around. He held the weapon aloft and aimed it at the figure who seemed to have appeared as if from nowhere behind him.

The figure was dressed like a man but was unmistakably feminine, with a soft face and a shapely body. Red eyes and a long lock of blonde hair were all that he could see aside from a little bit of the skin surrounding those parts of her face. A white balaclava covered most of her face and a single piece blue uniform covered by a white armored vest and a few odd pieces of armor covered her body. Her boots were of black leather and appeared to have fallen apart long ago, the repairs to them improvised with strips of cloth and leather wrapped around her legs. Her gloves were fingerless and the same shade of blue as the uniform but leather plates of armor covered the back. Two short swords were strapped to either hip along with an array of throwing knives and a harp. In the center of the vest was a great eye trailing a tear of blood. The figure was intimidating but Link could tell almost immediately that she was not an enemy.

"I've been waiting for you, hero of time…" she said. Link lowered his sword and the figure approached him. Navi remained ready to fight but Link no longer felt that the Shiekah advancing towards him was a threat. His blade dropped until the point hovered about an inch from the white marble floor. The dust swirling in the air absorbed the light streaming in through the window behind the Shiekah and silhouetted her against it, making any additional details about her very hard to spot. Link tried to picture in his mind what her face would look like without the mask but was unable to do so.

"When evil rules all, an awakening voice will call from the Sacred Realm to those destined to be Sages who dwell in the five temples of Hyrule. One in the deep forest, one in the mountain of fire, one beneath the waves of a great lake, one within a goddess of the sand, and one within the accursed depths of the underworld. Each Sage has the power to gather to them an army of their kind, and together led by the legendary hero of time they could summon to them an army greater than any that has ever walked this earth." The Shiekah woman said. Link stood frozen, unsure whether or not he was supposed to reply to this.

"This is the legend of the Sages passed down by my people, the Shiekah. I am Sheik, warrior queen of the Shiekah. As I see you stand here holding the mythical Master Sword you truly do look like the legendary Hero of Time. If you believe the legend then you have no choice, you must seek out the five temples and awaken the Sages." Sheik stated. Link grimaced when she said that.

"I've had just about enough of people telling me what I can and can't do for a day, thank you." Link groaned. Sheik glared at him, and though he couldn't see most of her face he caught the vague outline of a frown on her face. Navi had reverted back to her normal blue hue by this point and ducked under Link's hat.

"That may be so, but the first sage is a girl I am sure you know. You dare not doom her to a terrible fate. She waits for you in the 'secret place' that you shared as children, she has fallen into a sleep that is too deep to awaken from on her own, you must wake the sage of the forest. Does this motivate you?" Sheik asked. Link couldn't even respond because he was so shocked by the level of Sheiks knowledge of his childhood. He took a step back and sheathed his sword. Though what Link could see of Sheik's face had not changed, he knew that she was now smiling at him.

"But there is an unfortunate problem. Equipped as you are now, you cannot even enter the temple. But if you trust what I say, you should go to Kakariko village, hidden there beneath the grave of the keeper of tombs is an item that will give you access to the temple." Sheik explained. She reached behind her back and pulled out the golden harp that Link had been wondering about the purpose of. She held it up and showed it to him before holding it in a playing position. Link interpreted this as instruction to pull out his Ocarina and he did, holding it to his lips and preparing to play.

"Should you ever be in great need of a quick escape, you will find sanctuary here in the Temple of Time no matter where you are, if you play this song. It is called the 'Prelude of Light' and it is an ancient and sacred melody long forgotten, a distant memory of the Hylians of old." Sheik stated, and then she played the short melody on her harp and Link repeated it back to her, soon they were playing together in unison and the sound of their song pierced the solemn gloom of the ancient temple. Link began to feel lightheaded and he felt his feet leave the floor. A moment later his vision became clouded by golden light and he very suddenly felt his feet standing on solid ground again. This time though it was the platform in the front area of the temple, and Sheik had disappeared.

"Let's go outside, figure out what has happened to this place." Navi said. Link nodded his consent and they both moved the short distance to the great doors of the temple. Link was ready for anything when he opened the door, but nothing could have prepared him for what he actually found when he pushed open the doors to the temple and stepped out into the early morning haze.

The sky was blackened as it had been seven years ago by the clouds of fire and ash that had risen from the burning of the castle. The smoke had long dissipated into the air, replaced by a roiling cloud of shadow; the sun remained appearing unhealthy and enflamed. The city had been burnt to the ground and dirty grey water filled craters in the streets which had been left by the Gerudo catapults during the war.

The charred cityscape was dotted with small fires, people burning whatever could be found to cook morsels of rotten food. Very few people still remained in the castle but what shocked Link was the apparent absence of Gerudo guards. Not a single warrior was visible from where Link stood.

As he stepped from the shadow of the temple, Death Mountain came into view. It was changed, no longer a majestic monument to the Goron people, but a towering shadowed mount of brown rock wreathed in unholy flame. A satanic ring of fire had stolen the throne of the smoky halo that had once been Death Mountain's crown.

The castle, once the symbol of Hyrule's righteous power, had been thrown aside, replaced by an obsidian tower of darkness, a shrine of evil sitting upon hallowed ground. Link knew that somewhere in that tower waiting for him with an army of monsters was the king of the Gerudo, Gannondorf, the man who Link would make pay for his evil deeds. He wished he could just charge up there right at that moment and be rid of the blackness that had been brought upon the world, but he knew that even with the strength of the Master Sword and Navi's light to guide him, there was no way he could fight his way through the hordes of dark monsters that guarded it. He would need help if he wanted to destroy Gannondorf, no single being could ever have the power to face his army alone.

"Heh heh heh, aren't you a bit late" there was a scratchy laugh to his left. Link whirled around with his hand on his sword, ready to draw. The man was hunched over with dirty rags covering every inch of him but his face. He would likely have been almost as tall as Link if he stood straight, but his crooked posture made him appear far shorter.

"Didn't you hear, the war's been over for a couple of years, you won't be needing that anymore, _Hero_" the man spat, gesturing towards Link's sword. Link was dumbfounded, and before he could respond the man began to stagger away, using a fragment of a broken beam as a walking stick.

"Where are all the Gerudo?" Link asked.

"The desert, right where they belong, Gannondorf is the only one who stayed." The man laughed grimly. Link looked back up at the black tower where Hyrule Castle had once stood.

"He is undefended?" Link asked.

"Only if you consider a moat of lava and an army of monsters in his tower 'undefended', the Gerudo wanted to conquer all of Hyrule but for whatever reason Gannondorf didn't let them, so they abandoned him and returned home. Guess they didn't want to fight his wars anymore. He replaced them with an army of monsters, but they don't work well as a team, his monsters are not going to be enough to conquer the rest of Hyrule. So it's sort of a stalemate." The man replied. Without allowing Link to ask any more questions, the man began stumbling away in the direction of what appeared to be a shanty town.

"Why are you still here? Isn't Kakariko or Lon Lon much nicer than this?" Link questioned. To this the man began laughing and cackling like Link had made a hilarious joke.

"Lon Lon is just as inhospitable, that damned Ingo took charge and has been ruining the place ever since. Kakariko is the new capital of free Hyrule but good luck finding anywhere to move in there. The place already has double the population it had before. I just scratch out a living here in the ruins of the castle, and the living is actually surprisingly good. If you ever catch a Poe, bring it here in a bottle and we'll trade for it." The man replied.

"Couldn't you live with the Gorons or the Zora? Even go to the forest and survive there, any of those places must be better than here!" Link exclaimed. The hunched man walked into the doorway of a house built from the ruins of the old majestic buildings of castle town.

"The forest isn't a bad idea. As for the Gorons and the Zora… they have their own problems." The man replied. And then he retreated into the darkness of his shanty and Link didn't bother following him in, he already had learned almost everything he could from the crooked man. He turned and began walking in the direction of the gates, hoping he would be able to get across the moat. At the worst, if he fell in the moat he could let it carry him down river until he reached the continuation of the Zora River, where he could climb ashore into the field. As it was though, he was able to get across.

The original drawbridge had fallen and was barely visible deep within the moat. It had been replaced by a few thick beams of wood that totaled barely more than a foot wide, just enough to walk across on foot without worrying about balance. The entrance to the castle was filled with wrecked wagons, most of them were burnt-out or smashed apart but a few were intact. Link searched them all and managed to scavenge a good amount of rupees out of them, ending up with almost one hundred when he added them to what he had set out with before. He put the rupees in his wallet and then walked across the makeshift bridge heading in the direction of Kakariko village.

Lon Lon ranch was visible from here and Link wondered what the place had turned into under Ingo's control. It definitely would be a lot different. Right now he didn't have time to dwell on it, maybe later he could go do something about it but at the moment he had other things to do that were far more important.

Link turned left and headed for Kakariko. The ashen gray clouds faded into bright blue skies as Link left the area of the castle. It was still early morning when the real sky became visible but by the time he reached Kakariko the sun had risen and the temperature with it. The field was strangely absent of any activity, even so close to Kakariko, a sad effect of Gannondorf's rule was people didn't feel safe on the roads. There weren't many people still crossing the field at all, Link thought he saw one wagon in the distance during his entire trip but he couldn't even be sure if it was really there or he had just imagined it.

Link crossed the field to Kakariko Village, and though the distance didn't seem as far, he could feel the miles wearing down on him. There was no way he could cross the world many times again on foot, he needed transportation. As he reached the foot of Death Mountain and scaled the path to Kakariko, he tried to think of where he had seen horses before. All thought of horses and walking was thrown from his mind when nearly twenty men in armor with bows in hand leapt out from behind the red boulders on either side of the path and took aim at him.

"Who are you and what is your business!" One of the men shouted, he appeared to be the leader with armor polished brighter and a cleaner sword and stronger bow than the others. Link kept his hands raised and the man repeated the demand.

"The business of peace" Link replied. The captain of the guard smirked at him and lowered his bow and signaled the other guards to do the same. The captain leapt down from his perch onto the path and approached Link until they were standing practically nose to nose.

"And why does a child like you think he can bring peace? Unless you bring news of new armies on our shores that can compete with the will of Gannondorf, you are a harbinger of no peace and continued war and ill news is an ill guest, they say. You don't even bring spare weapons to arm what few men we still have." The captain growled.

"I come armed with a weapon greater than any ever seen upon this earth!" Link shouted. Navi flew from beneath his hat and the captain leapt backward and Link drew the master sword from its sheath, raising the sacred blade to the sky. The captain and his soldiers were astonished by what they saw and could take no action against him.

"Behold! This blade was forged by the goddess in sacred flame, it is the blade of evil's bane, and Master Sword is its name!" Link shouted, the blade of the sword glowed blue and gold in the mingled light of Navi and the sun. The captain immediately knelt before Link and bowed his head.

"My apologies… I had no idea that you were the…" The captain started. Link raised his hand for him to stop.

"I have not traveled through time and ruin to seek apology from what few righteous men are left. I am here seeking an item, one that I was told I would need by a masked woman named Sheik in the Temple of Time. It is called the hookshot." Link replied. The Captain rose to his feet quickly and turned to look in the direction of the village.

"That item belonged to Dampe the grave keeper, but it has not been seen since his death. I have told you all that I know of it. You may call me Lector, captain and defender of free Hyrule, and what may I call you?" the captain asked.

"Link, the hero of time." Link replied. Lector nodded grinning at some inward thought.

"Then we do we walk in the footsteps of mortal men or legends?" Lector asked in disbelief. Navi fluttered forward to ask a question that Link himself was surprised he had not thought of.

"Do you know where we might find the Princess Zelda, we saw her flee the castle seven years ago." Navi asked. Lector turned to look at the fairy, marveling at the strange creature from the pages of children's stories. Link returned the Master Sword to its sheath as Lector spoke.

"The princess has not been seen since that day, nor has any member of the royal family… it would be best if you did not speak of them." Lector replied. Link grimaced. Link thought he would sense it if the princess had died, and if Gannondorf had the Triforce of Courage he would have already taken all of Hyrule, not just the castle.

"This changes nothing…" Link stated after a moment's pause. Lector looked down at the ground and then lifted his eyes to the hilt of the Master Sword rising above Link's back.

"We are truly glad to have you on our side, Hero of Time, I will lead you to the cemetery, my men will guard this place." Lector stated. He turned and led the way to the graveyard, where Link hoped to find the Hookshot or some clue to its existence. Only seven years had passed since Link had last seen Kakariko village, but nothing could have prepared him for the changes that had occurred in so short a time.


	20. A Game with Death

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 20: A Game with Death

Kakariko village was not the same place as it had been when Link had seen it seven years before. It appeared that the majority of Castle Town's population had moved there during the years since the war.

The place had originally been set upon three terraces that reached up only slightly up the mountain side, the existing terraces had been expanded by almost double their length so that the windmill now stood in the center of the town and an additional three terraces had been made in the last seven years and upon those terraces were tightly packed houses made from red rock and wood that had been felled to make way for the terraces. Additionally a low wall of red rock about six feet high with a platform on the backside had been erected across the path leading up into the village. Sixteen guards manned this new battlement and additionally four more stood at the gate, all carried a sword, a spear, and a bow and were ready to shoot at anything that came up from the narrow valley leading to the village.

The village's position in the foot of the mountains made it idea for defense from any sort of attack that Gannondorf and his forces could launch on it. There were only two entrances to the village, the fortified one that Link had passed through and the one that led up the mountain, which was also guarded by a six foot brick wall, but was only manned by four guards. Link figured this was because Gannondorf had no way of using that as a route of attack and the guards there were just a precaution.

Link noted that almost everyone in the village was armed and wearing some sort of protective clothing. Link estimated that about three thousand people now lived in Kakariko village as opposed to under a thousand that had been there when he had first seen it. Several blacksmiths had apparently set up shop in the town as well as iron, copper, and tin mines at the foot of the mountain. Those smithies were turning out weapons as fast as they could bring their hammers to anvils, but they still hadn't caught up with the overwhelming need for new weapons among the soldiers and civilians. Kakariko was in a good defendable position, but it was not built with war in mind, the Gerudo were to them a distant people long out of memory and sight until only a few years ago.

Lector led Link through the town and past several buildings that were being worked on feverishly by a crew of overly large carpenters, expanding to make room for the people living in the cramped housing up on the mountain side. After a while they reached the Graveyard which was in the same place but due to the expansion of the village was now much closer to the houses and was only separated from view by a large earthwork hill.

"How much do you know about this woman named Sheik?" Lector asked as they reached the entrance to the graveyard.

"Not very much, I only talked with her for a few minutes… she was strange, and while she was telling me the truth I could tell that she wasn't telling me all of it." Link replied. Lector acknowledged this with a nod and proceeded to tell Link all that he knew of her.

"She is very odd, though she is the warrior-queen of the sheikah, she is not of their race, I could tell by her hair. The sheikahs hair is brown and black and turns grey with age, her hair is blonde. I also noticed an unmistakable Hylian accent on the few occasions I have spoken with her, she has been attempting to form an army to fight against Gannondorf and has not returned to Kakariko for a long while" Lector explained.

"Why haven't you gathered an army to fight back against him yet? You've had seven years to do it." Link asked. Lector shook his head against this.

"We haven't been able to find enough Hylians to break the ranks of the Gerudo. We cannot turn to the Zora for help; they are frozen under a sheet of ice summoned by Gannondorf's black magic. We cannot turn to the Gorons, their young and weak have been abducted by the dragon that dwells within the mountain and what strong remain of them are within the mountain battling to save their own kind, they cannot help us. The Sheikah are willing to help us and they are magnificent warriors, but their power comes in stealth, not open war, and only a dozen of them still live. Your presence proves that the Kokiri exist, but I will never allow our war to be fought by the lives and blood of children." Lector replied. They entered the graveyard and Lector pointed to a small shack on the edge of the tombstones.

"That was Dampe's shack, it has remained untouched since the day he died, aside from taking his food for refugees, he wouldn't have wanted it to go to waste. I must return to my men, you may do whatever pleases you here so long as you do not cause trouble… or disturb those who sleep" Lector stated nervously, glancing at the many graves clustered around them. Link nodded and saluted Lector before turning and walking to Dampe's shack.

Lector turned and walked back into the village while Link approached the shack. Link walked up to the door and attempted to open it but the knob would only turn half way before grinding and ceasing to move. Link tried to turn the knob a few times before Navi intervened.

"The door is unlocked, but the knob is rusted shut, you'll never open the door that way. I think it's too thick to kick in…" Navi stated. Link took a step back from the door and then slammed his foot into the door near the knob. The door made a cracking sound but refused to yield until the second kick. The door split asunder and the two halves fell inwards. Link stepped through and Navi hovered for a moment surprised that Link had the strength to kick in the door.

"I'll note that doors of that thickness can be broken" Navi stated as Link stepped into the abandoned shelter. Dust thrown up when he smote the door filled the air and sunlight filtered in through the windows and filled the room with a warm and musty light that made everything feel too close and ancient. Link immediately set to work searching the place, making sure to put everything back where he found it, something felt wrong about disturbing the place of the old grave keeper, even if he was dead and his house abandoned.

Link started with the obvious places, he had no idea how big this 'hookshot' would be, though he assumed it would be at least the size of his forearm to do what it was said to be able to do. He looked beneath the bed and in all of the drawers and cabinets. Once he had searched all of those places he began to walk back and forth across the floor of the shack, stomping his booted feet on the ground, but he didn't hear the dull thud of anything hidden beneath a floorboard. He went to the desk and grabbed it to move it so he could check the floor under it when he saw a book sitting upon the desk top.

Link reached out and grabbed the book turning it over so he could see the cover. It was labeled _The Journal of Dampe: Grave Keeper of Kakariko_; Link opened it, hoping to find a clue within as to where he could find the hookshot. He sat down at the desk and began flipping through the pages, searching for any mention of hookshots. The journal was about three hundred pages thick and only half had been written upon, Link assumed the last entry half way through the book would be on the day or the day before Dampe died.

As it turned out the entry that mentioned the hookshot was two pages before the end of the book, right where the leather bound spine joined two sheaves of paper. Link read the entire entry to see if he could find a location mentioned.

_It is May the twenty ninth, in the ninety first year of the life of Dampe, Grave keeper of Kakariko._

_Today I dug what is likely to be my own grave. I prepared my own tombstone with the runes of myself and my family inscribed on its face. I left instruction as to what I wish to be done with my body and I left a secret treasure for whoever may challenge me in death. I do not wish to be bored by my long years that I shall linger beneath the earth and I would request someone who would give me a challenge to restore my vitality._

_Beneath my grave during the long years I have spent as grave keeper of this great village of Kakariko, I have constructed a labyrinth of cunning difficulty which shall be the field upon which I and my opponent shall face off against one another. I bid whoever read this attempt to conquer me in death. A great gift shall be given to the victor, which is the prize that shall bring them to challenge me in my grave._

_~Dampe~_

Link closed the notebook and set it back down on the table. Navi flew out the door and immediately began moving from tombstone to tombstone searching for Dampe's name on any of them. Link started from the opposite end of the graveyard and began to work towards the middle at a slightly slower pace. Link ended up finding the grave keeper first since he was on the end of a row very near to where Link had started. Link searched around the grave for some sort of hatch or gap leading down into the labyrinth that existed below, but he couldn't find anything.

Navi flew over to the tombstone and began to inspect its structure; being far smaller than Link she was able to spot much finer details than he could. Even so, it took three revolutions around the grave marker for her to find what she was looking for. At the base of the tombstone right where it touched the ground there was a tiny steel line which Navi recognized as the edge of a rail.

"Push the tombstone from the back!" Navi exclaimed excitedly. Link wasn't sure what small detail she had seen but he did as she instructed and circled around the back of the stone. He placed two hands upon the back of the stone and threw all of his weight against it. The gravestone slid away surprisingly easily and Link was barely able to keep himself from falling into the pit below. There was no ladder or stair, the pit was smooth sided and dropped thirty feet into a torch lit chamber below. There was a shallow pool of water about five feet deep at the bottom which Link assumed was there to cushion his fall.

Link gazed down into the pit below for a few seconds before leaping down into the unknown below.

((()))

Malon hated her life.

For seven years she had been forced into slave labor on this ranch that had once been her father's, taken by Ingo the thief. She had tried running away before, but Ingo was too smart, always watching he was, never did she have a good chance to escape. She had tried before but he always just caught her on one of the horses, but the gate he kept locked and only he had the key so she couldn't take a horse of her own. She wished she had a weapon with which to fight him, but there were no weapons on the ranch aside from Ingo's horsewhip, the bite of which she had felt after her first attempt to escape his custody.

She had contemplated suicide several times before but never had the nerve to actually do it; life was too precious to just throw away like that. Her father had tried several times to get back the ranch but it was useless, Ingo had the support of Gannondorf and if Talon tried to take the place back he would likely succeed for a few days before being hunted down and killed by the armies of darkness. It was pointless to hope for such a thing.

Malon heard a shout from the direction of the barn, Ingo, angry about something or other. She sprang to her feet and ran in the opposite direction, heading for the old watch tower which was now used as a cattle barn. Malon had managed to keep the place clean and the cows healthy, but it was the horses she was most worried about. Ingo beat them constantly with his whip, sometimes for no reason at all. The only horses he didn't hit with his whip were his prized charger, 'Storm-rider', and the greatest horse of them all, Epona. He didn't dare hit that horse out of fear of what the horse would do to him if he did, he knew from what he had seen of that horse that she could kick hard enough to knock a cow on its back.

Malon had been on the ranch longer than Ingo, and she knew all of the hiding places. She went into the abandoned watchtower and ran past the cows that all stood in the middle of the floor, mooing and stamping occasionally. Behind one of the old crates in the back was a tunnel that led to a hollow that used to be a cuckoo house, but the cuckoos were all kept on the other side of the ranch now. Malon used the small amount of magic she knew to strike light into a candle and she brought it with her into the hollow. The entrance was barely large enough to wiggle through but once inside it was tall enough to stand in. she closed the 'door' behind her and from the outside her presence was no longer visible. Once she was in the coop she set the candle in the center of the floor and found the hatch that led to the outside of the wall. It was large enough to climb through, but it was also forty feet off the ground and there was nowhere to go to on that side of the ranch. When she had opened the hatch she extinguished her candle and then moved to lie down on a pile of hay in the corner.

"You have suffered a terrible fate, haven't you." A woman's voice said.

Malon shrieked and jumped and hit her head on the ceiling before falling backwards onto the haystack. She looked around but couldn't see who had spoken; there was nobody else in sight.

"Who… who's there?" Malon stammered, pushing herself with her feet back into the corner. She sat leaning against the wall, searching the entire room for the one who had spoken. There was still no sign of them, Malon began to wonder if she had imagined the voice. Then something moved, it seemed as if the shadows in the corner of the room suddenly condensed into the form of a person. She was clad in blue with a white tunic bearing the bleeding eye of the sheikah.

"Sheik is here" she replied. Malon cowered from the strange figure, shrinking down into the corner as Sheik stepped into the center of the room.

"How did you get in here… what do you want?" Malon asked fearfully. Sheik stepped forward to Malon and for a moment she thought that the mysterious figure would kill her. But instead the woman took a seat next to her and put a calming hand on her shoulder. Malon had no idea why but the hand seemed to sooth her and take away the fear of this strange person who had found her hiding place.

"I come to give you a message… soon you will be freed by one who you have not seen in many years. He will come clad in green wielding the sword and shield of a legendary hero." Sheik said. Malon couldn't help being excited by the news that soon she would escape this place that had claimed her childhood.

"On the sixth day hence, look to the east, to the mountain of death. From there shall the hero descend and come hither." Sheik said. Malon smiled at the thought of being freed from her custody at the hands of Ingo. There was a sound from inside the connected tower and Malon heard Ingo's voice in the main part of the barn. Sheik grabbed her and pulled her tightly against her chest and drew a dagger from her belt.

"While I stand by you, he will not touch you." Sheik whispered. They heard Ingo searching the barn, he continued for a few moments before leaving back out the door. Sheik relaxed and lowered her dagger and let Malon step away.

"You are safe for now… I have things to do, other places where my presence is urgently required. Take this, do not use it unless your need becomes dire." Sheik said, she pulled a beat-up looking short sword in a sheath off the back of her belt and tossed it to the ground at Malon's feet.

"How will I know when to use it?" Malon asked. She couldn't see Sheik's face under the wrappings that covered her head, but she thought that she was grimacing beneath her mask.

"You will know" Sheik replied, and without another word she leapt out of the window. Malon ran to the hatch to watch her leave, expecting to see her splattered on the ground forty feet below. She was amazed to see… absolutely nothing. The field was totally empty; there was no sign of her mysterious visitor, aside from an old sword and an open window. Sheik had disappeared.

((()))

Link landed with a splash in the pool beneath the grave. The pool was brightly lit by sunlight from the hole above, but the rest of the chamber was lit dimly by torches there was a doorway at the back of the room but it was blocked by a plug of solid rock that seemed to have been fit seamlessly into it. Link climbed out of the pool dripping wet and looked around for some sign of Dampe. The room was empty aside from the lit torches on the walls.

"Dampe! Your challenger awaits!" Link shouted. His voice echoed through what seemed to be a massive underground complex. He waited a few moments after the echo subsided and to his surprise, Dampe responded.

"Who is it?" A shout came from deep within the network of tunnels.

"Me!" Link shouted back. There was no reply for several seconds, but then Dampe appeared as if something out of a dream, there was a shocked squeak from Navi as the figure of the hunched grave keeper carrying his shovel appeared and hovered in the center of the room, floating immediately in front of them.

"Well, young lad you certainly appear to be in prime shape. I may not look it but I am confident in my speed. Will you challenge me to a race?" Dampe asked. Link nodded a yes and Dampe turned to face the stone door at the back of the room. He gazed at it for a moment and it faded into a shadow, leaving the door to the labyrinth open.

"Here is my challenge. Doors will close ten seconds after I pass through them, your goal is simply to make it to the finish line, so you cannot be more than ten seconds behind me or you will lose. Your fairy will have to stay outside since she would give you an unfair advantage. Make sense?" Dampe explained. Link acknowledged this and then Dampe slowly floated to the door.

"Alright, be ready now." Dampe warned.

"I'm ready" Link replied. He assumed a running stance and Dampe shot off into the tunnels, Link sprinting close behind. At first Dampe was fast but Link focused all of his thought into keeping up with the long dead grave keeper and soon was only a few feet behind him. The first tunnel that was long and straight suddenly turned right and then left again and led to a corridor which split off in both directions left and right. Dampe went left and Link followed. Fireballs began to emit from behind Dampe and Link had to work hard to keep from running into them while he was sprinting behind the grave keeper.

"Here comes the tricky part, are you ready?" Dampe shouted. Link didn't have the breath to respond; already he could feel the sprint beginning to wear on his legs. He kept moving though and they reached the part that Dampe had spoken of. There was a room full of pillars of rock and between them walls of fire shot up from floor to ceiling at what appeared to be random intervals. To make things more difficult, a boulder rolled down from a ramp on the right side of the room and headed straight for Link. Link leapt aside and then continued to run after Dampe, who to be fair to Link was crossing the room in a zigzag since Link would not be able to cross straight.

Link was about to pass through one of the gaps when a wall of flame burst up before him and the fire splashed across the ceiling like a liquid that fell against gravity. The flames were so hot that Link was sure they had singed his eyebrows off and he circled around the side, following Dampe up a ramp at the back of the room. More fire and boulders appeared throughout the following tunnel but Link managed to dodge all of it and reached a chamber that split off three ways. At first he was confused as to which path the ghost had taken, but a fireball like the one that Dampe dropped was on the left path and so that was the way to go. He climbed up the ledge onto the left path and then ran after the grave keeper once again, barely making it through a door before it shut and entering a room that was a great pit.

"This pit descends into the very bowels of the earth; some say it is connected to Death Mountain!" Dampe shouted from near the top of the chasm. There was a ramp that circled the room and led up to a door that Dampe was already halfway to, Link figured he had fifteen seconds, he threw all of his energy into one last sprint and he flew over the path as if his feet had grown wings. Dampe passed through the door and remained there, waiting for Link, counting down. Link passed through the door with a mere three seconds left before it would close. Dampe smiled as Link collapsed against the wall at the back of the room with sweat pouring down his face.

"The hero of time pushes a hard bargain, at least so far as running goes." Dampe laughed. Link saw that in the center of the room there was a large treasure chest with a rusted lock and a faint golden light peeping through the cracks in its surface. Link rested for a moment before rising to his feet and approaching the chest.

"The item you find within is yours now, it is useless to me in death, perhaps you shall enjoy it in life." Dampe stated as Link approached the chest. The lock clicked as he neared it and the lid opened wide. Within was exactly what Link had expected to see. A device that looked roughly like a crossbow with a length of chain and some sort of gear mechanism attached to it. The item was however far more compact than a crossbow and could be wielded with one hand. Rather than an arrow it fired an extremely sharp looking spear point with the chain trailing behind it. Dampe floated over to the back of the room while Link marveled at his new device. A door at the back of the room appeared and through it there was a continuation of the chasm and then on the other side what appeared to be a target made from soft stone.

"Shoot that stone with the hookshot, and make sure you hold on tight, the pull is surprisingly strong." Dampe warned. Link stepped up to the edge and aimed at the target on the other side of the chasm. He fired the hookshot and the spear point leapt from the end of the weapon at incredible speed. The point lodged in the rock and then the chain became taut.

"Release the trigger and hold on for dear life." Dampe instructed. Link grabbed the handle of the hookshot in both hands and then released the trigger. The pull was much harder than expected but not enough so to be painful. Link felt his feet leave the earth and then the chasm was beneath him, and then land again. Before Link had time to comprehend what had happened, he was on the other side of the chasm.

A red lever was sticking out of the side of the hookshot now. Link pulled it back and pushed it back into the device and there was a clicking noise as the internal mechanisms reset for another shot. Link put the hookshot in his pouch, amazed at its power and the things that he could now do with it. The spear point didn't appear to have been dulled at all by penetrating the stone wall and Link wondered if there was some sort of spell keeping it in perfect condition. It didn't really matter as long as it worked.

"Be careful on your return journey!" Dampe shouted from across the chasm before disappearing from sight. Link turned back to his platform and saw at the back that there was a stairway leading up into some unknown place above. Link put the hookshot back in the pouch at his side and started up the stairs. He climbed forty steps before entering a dark room where many gears were spinning and turning. Somewhere above him Link heard a tune that seemed somehow familiar. He searched the room and soon found a ladder at the back that led up to a room above.

Link stepped onto the bottom rung of the ladder and began climbing up, the ladder seemed to go on forever but when he finally reached the top he figured out where it had led. He had ended up in the main room of the windmill where a man stood cranking a phonograph box angrily. The tune didn't go faster though despite the ferocity with which the man cranked it. Link walked up curiously to see why the man was so disparaged.

"What's wrong?" Link asked. The man continued to angrily crank the box but he spoke.

"It was that stupid ocarina kid, seven years ago; he played this song and messed up the windmill!" The man shouted. Link didn't understand why the man was so mad, so he stepped outside. He was surprised at how long he had been underground. It hadn't seemed like so long but the sun was disappearing on the horizon and the sky had turned gold and dark. Link looked up at the windmill, wondering at what the dude meant about the song and the ocarina. He knew some other songs also had magic power when played on it so he pulled it out and after a few tries managed to play the song.

The change was immediate. The sky darkened and thunder crashed in the distance. Link wanted to ask Navi what power the song had but she was still waiting for him at the graveyard. The windmill began to spin faster and a sound of splashing water came from the well. Link turned and ran quickly towards the graveyard as the storm closed in. The race with Dampe had been exhausting but somehow seemed to make him faster than he had been before. Some magic power now granted him speed, within minutes he was in the graveyard and Navi was floating next to the open grave of Dampe.

"I won, I got the hookshot!" Link shouted across the graveyard. Just as he did it began to rain and Navi flew in the direction of the old shack. Link followed her there and they met inside where Link pulled out the hookshot and explained to Navi how it was used. Navi seemed to already know a little bit about hookshots and whenever Link didn't understand how something worked she explained it.

"I would say lets head to the forest tonight but its dark and raining and we have no idea what kind of monsters Gannondorf has lurking in the darkness, I wouldn't count on getting safe passage at night, and I wouldn't want to go there in the rain anyways, I hate getting rained on." Navi said. Link picked up the two halves of the door and propped them up against the opening to keep the door somewhat closed. There was still some firewood stacked against the wall and Link put some in the stone fireplace and ignited it with a controlled burst of Din's Fire. Once the place was warmed up and well lit, Link removed his tunic, boots, gauntlets, sword, shield, and chain mail, and lay down on Dampe's old bed in his pants and undershirt. It was the first time he had slept in a real bed in a good long while, and as a result he slept like the dead. Navi settled down on the pillow next to his head and the both of them got the last rest they would get for a while, they had a journey tomorrow, and once they left this one safe refuge of Kakariko village there would be no more safe places.

Link closed his eyes and thought of the forest as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Soon he would be going home, though not nearly in the way he had imagined. But it didn't matter, soon he would see Saria again, and for a time he would be able to forget all about quests and wars and evil kings. He would for at least a while be just Link, not the hero of time, not the wielder of the master sword, just Link. With that thought in mind he let himself fade into dark pit of sleep, the last time he would get a chance to for a while. Despite what he would have wished his return to the forest to be like, things were very soon going to go very far astray.


	21. Link's Return

The Legacy of Hyrule

By: Robert Siegfried

Chapter 21: Link's Return

Bright sunlight filtered in through the side window of the abandoned shack. It took Link a moment to remember where he was and when he did he quickly rose to his feet and looked around. Navi was still lying on the pillow, her glow had diminished and her actual body was visible. She didn't look so much different from a person when she slept, if it could be called sleep. Fairies didn't actually need 'sleep'; they just rested when they either had nothing to do or needed a break from the real world. Link put on his boots, tucking the edge of his beige pants into them, and then put on the chain mail and tunic and all of his other things until he stood five minutes later ready to go.

Navi didn't awaken, but instead just at one point was unlit and at another was hovering alongside Link, ready to leave. As an afterthought, Link grabbed the journal of Dampe off the desk and put it in his pouch. Now that the door had been kicked down the inside of the house was relatively exposed to the elements and if he left the journal its destruction would be ensured, by taking it he was saving some record of the Grave Keeper's life. Even after taking the journal though something still didn't feel quite right about just abandoning Dampe's home to the elements, Link spent a minute to place the door up against the frame as to keep out most of the elements, not a perfect solution but by far the best one he had come up with for the time being. Link was delayed further by something he hadn't really thought of since the temple of time.

Food.

In all of the excitement of the last day Link had forgotten entirely about his need to eat, and while he did have some bread left over from his childhood that appeared to have been frozen in time, he wasn't about ready to take a bite and found out. He threw away the bread for the birds to have their way with and then walked into Kakariko to look for some food. Most of the places Link remembered from when he was a child had disappeared but there was one that he was sure would take him. It was on the third terrace and it was the old Bazaar, Link had done much for them as a child when he disarmed the bandits that tried robbing the place, he could only hope that they remembered him as well. If they didn't, he had plenty of rupees to buy food with.

Link stepped through the door and found the place already halfway filled with people. As last time, Navi hid beneath his cap as he entered the building to keep from drawing attention to him. Link walked over to one of the vendors on the right side of the building, the woman he recognized as being the same one who had sold him the bread seven years ago. Link was in a way glad that she didn't recognize him as he bought four loaves of bread wrapped in thin paper, then he walked over to the counter where little more than seven years ago he and Sophia had eaten side by side, now she was dead. Link knew he had done exactly what he should have but he still couldn't escape the regret.

"Hey, you!" someone shouted from across the bar. Link looked over and saw the bartender pointing at him, the same one as had served him seven years before. It was too late for him to escape from view, he was already being approached.

"I remember you, you kicked out those bandits years ago, that was amazing! Where have you been all these years?" The bartender asked. Link tried to think of a response, Navi bailed him out with a whisper in his ear.

"Say you're an explorer" Navi whispered.

"I'm an explorer, I've been out visiting other countries" Link replied. The bartender accepted this and didn't press for more information on where he had been, though Link was pretty sure that Navi would know of some other lands that he could say he had been to.

"So, what brings you back to Kakariko?" the bartender asked.

"Just passing through, I'm actually in a bit of a hurry and I'm just here for provisions" Link stated.

"Of course, of course. We're out of almost everything but we still have a good supply of water, ale, and salted pork. There's also a bit of pipe weed laying around in the basement somewhere but I take it you don't smoke." The bartender said. Link nodded a yes.

"Alright, I'll be back in just a minute." The bartender replied. A moment later he returned carrying a large leather canteen of water which appeared to be about two quarts, a pint flagon of ale, and a wooden box which Link would guess contained about ten pounds of salted pork. When he said he needed provisions, the man had certainly taken him seriously.

"I still need money so I can't give it to you for free, but I'll charge half of what I usually do, consider it my way of saying thanks. That'll be fifteen rupees." The man said. Link gave him thirty anyways.

"I have plenty of money as a result of my travels; you will be needing it more than I will at the present." Link stated as he handed over one red rupee and two blue ones. The bartender set the supplies down on the counter and Link began piling them into his pouch which had begun to get heavy, now it weighed about thirty pounds which meant there were ninety pounds of things inside it, most of the weight being in bombs.

"Where does one get a pouch like that… I could definitely use one of those for storage." The bartender said.

"At present time this is the only one I know of in existence, if I find another I'll give it to you." Link replied. And on that note he left, leaving the bartender less than satisfied with the amount of talk, though very happy with the addition of thirty rupees to his register. Link himself began jogging the moment he was out the door and he headed immediately for the path he had used the day before to enter Kakariko. The guards saluted as he ran past and Link waved back but didn't look. The path was treacherous and the last thing he needed was to trip and get cut up on the gravel lining the path.

The crossing of the field was underwhelming to say the least, no sight of people and only an outline of a peahat in the distance. He had to go further than he did when he was a child, back then he had used a secret passageway underground that would be too narrow and too flooded for him to use now. It took most of the morning and early afternoon to reach the forest and when he got there he had no idea what to do. There seemed to be no entrance into the place. The forest was right there but it was at the top of a thirty foot high sheer cliff.

Link walked along the base of the cliff looking for somewhere where he could climb up but after walking almost a mile the only thing he found was a wooden ramp that had been burnt sometime in the last few years and collapsed almost immediately when he tried to use it. Link continued walking along the base of the cliff but it was evident that there was no way up the sheer face. After all he had come through he was thwarted by a cliff only ten yards high.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Link, one that made him feel so insufferably stupid that he almost hoped it wouldn't work. He reached down into his pouch and pulled out the hookshot and took aim at a tree up on the top of the cliff.

"I can't believe I didn't think of this before" Navi stated as Link pulled back the lever to set the chain for launching. Link pulled the trigger and the spear-point leapt from the end of the device, hurtling through the air until it stuck in the trunk of a tree at the top of the cliff. Link released the trigger and held on tight and was yanked upward by the gearbox within the device. There was a dull thud as the end of the device hit the tree and wrenched the point out of the core of the tree it had penetrated. Link shook his head in wonder at the small device that had instantly made exploring previously unreachable places possible.

From the top of the cliff Link had a commanding view of Hyrule field from the south. An angle he had not yet seen it from. The tower of Lon Lon ranch loomed high in the center of the field blued by the miles that separated them. Beyond the tower of the ranch loomed a second tower far taller and more evil. Even so, at more than five leagues away it was difficult to make out; it's black obsidian walls not so different in color from the black clouds that swirled around it. A dark stain on the northern sky that was once clear and blue. To the west the desert was far beyond Link's sight. All he could see was a gap between two cliffs and a small yellow dot between that seemed to dance in the sunlight. Ten leagues, thirty five miles away. Suddenly Link began to wish he had gotten a horse, he would need to cross Hyrule so many different ways during his quest that it was feasible he would need to span more than three hundred miles.

"Amazing, isn't it? Its best to look over the field from a lower altitude, if you get too high it gets difficult to make out detail." Navi stated as Link gazed across the field. Link tried to look further still, and to his amazement he saw things, other places, things he could never have seen from where he stood. He saw past Death Mountain and saw a barren land of red stone and little in the form of living things. And beyond that he saw a sandy beach and an ocean, a mountain rising from the sea topped by a great spotted egg. And beyond the Gerudo desert he saw another desert vast and filled with ancient devices and traps. Link could have spent hours seeing all these things but he was jolted back to reality by Navi.

"Be careful, He can feel you, He is watching." Navi warned. Link looked down at his hand and saw the glow of the Triforce of courage on his hand subsiding from what must have been a brilliant glow. He looked up and saw flashes of lightning in the distance around Gannondorf's tower, the activity in the north had increased since he had begun looking. Link turned and ran into the woods, waiting until he was out of the castle's line of sight to talk.

"What was that, how did I do that?" Link asked.

"The Triforce of Courage has a strange influence on those who wield it. Your senses are heightened by it, and not in a natural way. Right now you have little experience wielding these powers and I would highly encourage you not to use them while you are within sight of the dark tower. It would be best if you didn't use them at all unless you must. Because you now hold the Triforce of Courage and He holds the Triforce of Power, there is a connection between both of you that draws you together; a thread of fate binds you to him, a thread that can only be broken by blood. You must kill him, or he must kill you, that is the way of things. You must be careful when you use your powers because when you use the eyes of the Triforce, he can see what you see; only your own eyes are safe from him. Do not let the Triforce betray you. It wants you to destroy him and will try and draw him to you, but you are not strong enough yet and if you battled him it would be you who died. You must be stronger before you use it." Navi explained. Link didn't quite understand all of the mechanics of what Navi had told him but he didn't feel like questioning it.

"I know where we are, but it is very far from the Kokiri village, almost six miles of rough terrain. It will take most of the afternoon to get there." Navi stated. She took the lead and Link followed behind her.

"I didn't realize that it was so far from the forest to the edge of the village." Link stated. He drew his sword and used it to hack away creepers and vines that hung across their route, it didn't take long for Navi to find a deku scrub path and once she did the walking became a bit easier, though it wasn't quite as straight of a line as they had been making while Link was cutting the way. He was glad for the indelible edge of the master sword, the Kokiri sword would have been worn dull by now by so much hacking and hewing through massive mounds of growth. Once the path became relatively easy, Link returned his sword to its sheath and just pushed aside things with his hands.

Even with the deku scrub trail it took almost an hour to complete the first mile and the second mile was only slightly faster. Link completed the third mile of plowing his way through the woods at about five in the afternoon. The very edge of the sky had turned gold and Link felt the chill that informed him that winter had been steadily approaching. It was late October assuming that he had warped seven years exactly, and then spanned the gap from the night of the twenty seventh to the morning of the twenty eighth. Now it was the twenty ninth and Link began trying to think just how long it had been since he had left the forest. He had left on the twentieth of October seven years before. To him it seemed far longer than that by all his reckoning, though not nearly seven years. So much had changed for him that it seemed impossible that he had only even been awake for nine days of it all.

Link took a seat on a toppled tree trunk and opened the pouch at his side. He pulled out the wooden box containing the salted pork and the Kokiri sword, now a mere dagger in his hand. Link piled up a little bit of dry wood from nearby and put it in a pile and then lit it with a controlled burst of Din's fire. The flames leapt up and engulfed the wood and Link gathered a small pile at his side to throw on when the flames began to die. He took a chunk of pork that he estimated to be about three quarters of a pound and impaled it on the Kokiri sword and held it over the fire for lack of a cooking pot or anything to place the meat in. he rolled the sword in his hands trying to cook the meat evenly all around, though he ended up singeing one side anyways.

Despite the less than perfect job of cooking the meat, Link had eaten very little over the last two days and he hungrily began to tear into the meat the moment he though it was ready. There was still a bit of pink in the middle but the meat wouldn't have any disease in it since it had been salted. Still hungry after finishing the meat, Link put away the sword and pulled out one of the loaves of bread and ate about half of it, stopping when he didn't feel hungry any more. He didn't want to keep eating until he was stuffed because that would just make his journey harder, but he didn't like marching with his stomach partway empty either because it didn't feel right, he wrapped the remaining half of the loaf back up in the paper he had taken it from and then stamped out the fire that he had made to cook the pork, scattering the ashes to prevent them from reigniting after he left and causing a forest fire.

After having his meal and putting out the fire Link took a draught from the sealed flagon of ale that the bartender had given him and felt a strange sensation of warmth and energy spread through his body. It felt similar to the effect of red potion though he was sure that the ale was not actually healing him in any way. Navi cast him a reproachful look after the first gulp and Link didn't chance a second.

"That is not a good idea" Navi warned. Link resealed the top of the flagon and put it back in his pouch and Navi started to float in the direction they needed to go. Link had spent about half an hour on his meal and by this point in time about half the sky was filled with a golden light while the other half was still light blue. Link followed Navi's lead through the forest as the day continued to wane into night. For a few hundred yards of the fifth mile they were slowed greatly by a long ancient hedge that took a long time to cut through and so by the time they reached a part of the lost woods that Link recognized, it was almost sunset. The moment they were out of the deep forest and into the lost woods Link picked up the pace heading for the Kokiri village. He felt a strange sensation moving through his body emanating from his stomach that made everything seem like it was not quite stable. No doubt it was an effect of the ale and if he had drank more it would actually seriously impair him, as it was he was relatively unaffected by the dizziness since he had drank so small and amount.

It didn't take long once he knew his own way to get back to the village, and things had certainly changed in the time he was gone. At a glance the village looked the same, but when he looked closer he saw the sprouts of baba plants growing up alongside the paths and houses. He had a fleeting warning in the back of his mind that something was watching him, but at the same time the presence he felt did not seem full of malice.

Link had emerged from the forest on the top of the northern cliff, where a long tangle of vines hung down across several ledges all the way to the ground. Link lowered himself over the edge and then climbed down to the valley floor, landing just as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

It was once he reached the ground that Link began to grow uneasy though. A few baba plants were not something to get too worried about, but the total absence of Kokiri children outside the houses put some much darker ideas in Link's mind that he didn't want to think about. Link drew his sword and shield as he advanced into the center of the village. Everything seemed smaller to him, he looked around and didn't see any signs of life under the darkening sky.

"Hello! Is anybody here?" Link shouted. There was no response, though a few of the baba plants stirred in their underground burrows. Link put away his shield but kept his sword drawn to be safe as he walked up to the doorway of Saria's house. The oil-cloth curtain hanging over the door flapped in the breeze and Link pushed it open. It was obvious that the house had been abandoned for some time, leaves from the fall had blown in through the door and littered the floor of the room and the edge of the carpet that lay near the door had grown wet and moldy. There was nothing to see in the house aside from an open chest at the back of the room. Link walked up to it and looked inside and saw that it was empty; though it was evident that something had been inside at some point.

"Saria, where are you" Link mumbled to himself as he walked back outside. He went next door to the twin's house and stepped inside. Their house was in relatively the same condition as Saria's but there was one major difference, a difference that chilled Link to the bone. He had only gone three steps into the room when he smelled it, then he saw it and barely made it back outside before vomiting out what was left in his stomach from his dinner. Inside the house one bed lay empty, the other held the half decayed corpse of one of the two sisters with a sword still standing straight from her belly. Two lifeless hands clutched at the blade as if she had tried to pull it out, but it had gone too deep. The point of the sword protruded from the bottom of the bed and a black puddle of blood long dry lay where the point hovered an inch from the floor.

"I knew something was wrong here. I don't think there are any Kokiri still in the village. Based on the fact that we have only found that one corpse between the two houses, it's likely they ran into the woods where they probably continue to live." Navi explained.

"How do you know whoever used that sword didn't just take the rest of them as prisoners or something?" Link asked. To answer his question Navi flew over to the yard of the shop where a mound of dirt with a stick protruding from the top stood. Link didn't need to be told to know it was a grave.

"We should look in the woods for them." Navi stated. Link nodded and walked back over to the vines, hacking down a baba plant on his way as it rose from the ground to attack him. Once at the wall he sheathed his sword and began to climb up the vines towards the top of the cliff. It was more difficult to climb than it was to rappel but Link managed to reach the top in only a few minutes. By the time he was at the top the sunset had faded and Link was standing upon the precipice of the cliff staring down at his abandoned home village. After only a moment of looking down at the bottom of the valley he turned and walked into the forest.

Inside the forest was darker than he had ever seen it before. The light of Navi was a gift that Link was very grateful for at this moment, a circle of blue light circled them for a few feet and outside that he couldn't see anything but a vague outline of the trees and underbrush. Link still knew the way to the secret place with or without light but he still had Navi lead him to be safe, if he missed a turn things could go badly, though it wasn't visually obvious, Link could tell that the forest had changed and was now full of monsters. He could feel the presence of living things in the wood, some evil and some not. Link followed the route to the secret place with uncanny skill and was about halfway there when something unexpected happened.

Link wasn't sure how he had sensed what was going to happen, but before the rock was hurled at his head he drew his sword and slashed the air with it where it met the flying stone in a shower of sparks. The rock shattered and flaming sparks flew from the blade of the Master Sword, but the blade itself was unmarred by the impact that would have notched the blade of any mortal sword. Link looked to the direction the rock had come from but did not sense any even presence; instead he sensed something strange, unusual.

Link began to approach the direction the rock had been flung from and found that it was directly in line with the gap that was the only way into the secret place.

"You cannot pass this way… there is nothing for you there" A child's voice stated from somewhere in the trees. Link put away his sword and stepped forward, and the child materialized from the forest in a single motion so smooth that Link could hardly decide when the child had appeared from the thicket and entered his view. Another rock was in his hand and he held it ready to throw but he was not a threat. He looked at Link's clothes with interest.

"You are strange… though your clothing is of Kokiri kind, you are not a Kokiri." The child said. Link tried to remember which child this was he faced; he seemed older than Link remembered any of the Kokiri being. Link looked back and forth but didn't see any other Kokiris, just this one.

"I can tell you are confused by my appearance. We Kokiri have changed since the death of The Great Deku Tree. As his magic fades into legend we have begun to return to the mold from which we were made, we are becoming mortal again. Our numbers have decreased but to my knowledge more than a dozen Kokiri still roam these woods. I am guarding this place because it is my duty to keep safe this sacred temple, though now I am sure the monsters have found other ways in." the Kokiri stated. Link still couldn't figure out who he was, but the child remained unidentified.

"What is your name?" Link asked. The Kokiri looked at him suspiciously and a purple fairy peeked out from under his hat. Link could see through the grime and the dirt and the age that the Kokiri had gained in the seven years since Link had seen him. The Kokiri was Mido, the one Kokiri Link didn't want to face, the one he was now standing directly in front of.

"Mido, I used to go by 'The Great Mido' but I made a mistake and now I am not great any more?" Mido replied.

"What mistake?" Link asked. Mido looked down at his feet and Link waited patiently to hear what he had to say, though he began to get a pretty good idea in his mind of what he was about to hear.

"A long time ago there was a Kokiri who wasn't like the rest of us. The Great Deku Tree realized that he was special but I did not and when the Deku Tree died I blamed it on him, I made him leave and he was the one person who could have saved us from the monsters that invaded the forest. He knew how to fight and he was the only one of us who had weapons and without him we were helpless when the Dark Ones arrived." Mido replied. Link wasn't sure what or who he was referring to by the 'dark ones' but he assumed that the sword he had seen through the stomach of a dead Kokiri girl belonged to one of them.

"May I pass? I'm here to help." Link said. Mido shook his head 'no'. Link looked down at the Kokiri boy who years ago had been such a jerk who now seemed to be almost noble.

"I made a promise, a promise to her before she entered these woods that I would let anything through unless they could prove they were friends… can you prove to me that you know her?" Mido asked.

"Everything about her was green, she loved the color green almost as much as she loved herself" Link replied. Mido shook his head when Link said this.

"That is something you could see from a distance, tell me something you could only know if you really _knew _her." Mido demanded. Link tried to think of something that he would only know if he knew Saria well, and the thought came to him in the form of music. He reached into the pouch at his side and produced the clay ocarina that Saria had given him as a boy. He lifted the ocarina to his lips and played Saria's song and the darkness that prevailed over the forest seemed to lift slightly, though it rapidly returned when the song had ended. Mido stood gazing up in wonder at Link as he completed the song and Link looked down at him.

"How, how could you possibly know that song. Saria never taught anyone that song. She only taught it to… HIM!" Mido exclaimed, looking upon Link in wonder.

"You must know him! How is he! What has become of him! Is he ever coming back?" Mido asked. In response Link put away the ocarina and pulled out the Kokiri sword and the wooden deku shield that he was glad he had kept. He knelt down to Mido's level and handed over the sword and shield. Mido fell to his knees as he took them in his hands.

"You bring me his sword, his shield; do you mean to say that he has… faded?" Mido asked. Link placed a hand on Mido's shoulder and Mido looked back up from the weapons to him.

"No… I mean to tell you that you are looking at him. I _am_ Link. Rocks are not a great enough weapon to fight off the hordes of darkness; I must go to the temple and save our friend from certain death. You were always defending things before, now you will be the guardian of the Kokiri in absence of the Deku Tree and Saria. You may not understand what this means but Saria is the Sage of the Forest and is destined to lead the Kokiri and all of the forest, she will become much greater than the Saria you and I know and she will be much different when I return with her. When she comes back she will be in charge, but for now, it will be you. I am not fit to lead the Kokiri now that I have grown up and that leaves you as the only one I can find fit to lead them for the time being. Unite them and await my return." Link explained. Mido stared at Link, amazed by what he heard, and then he buckled the sword belt over his back and stood with sword and shield drawn, seeming to become far greater in height armed with the sword and shield of the Kokiri.

"I'm sorry Link… I promise I will defend this place from any evil that may arrive here. They will not forget the name of Mido!" Mido exclaimed. He held the sword reverently over his head and Link grinned. Mido had been changed by the last seven years and Link was actually starting to take a liking to this new Mido.

At once Kokiri began to materialize out of the forest. Armed with sticks, stones, shovels, anything they could get their hands on. They all looked upon Link with reverence as he towered over them at the entrance to the secret place.

_He's back_

_I knew he would return_

_Look at his weapons, look at his armor_

_He's amazing_

The excited whispers filled the forest clearing as the Kokiri rallied to Link and Mido and Link stood alongside his childhood enemy, now friend. At least a dozen Kokiri had arrived and more were appearing, apparently less had been killed than Link and Navi had thought. They all looked up expectantly at Link, expecting him to say something. Link raised his hand over his head to signal a quiet and then he spoke to all of the friends who he had spent the first part of his life with.

"I know that I have been gone for a while, and many of you blame it on Mido, rightly so." Link said. A few of the Kokiri looked upon Mido with distain, but their gaze returned to Link as he continued to speak.

"However, Mido has made mistakes as we all do, and those mistakes have made him stronger, better, and have earned him my forgiveness. All I ask is that you all learn to forgive any injustice he did for you in the name of all that is right. In Saria's stead Mido will be called 'Grand Korok', a title he shall hold until I return with the true leader of the Kokiri at my side. Trust in him as I now do! If I can forgive Mido for all that he has done to me, surely you can all forgive him for the smaller things he has done to you!" Link shouted. The Kokiri nodded in agreement and no longer did they look at Mido with dishonor, but with trust. One by one the Kokiri began to kneel before Mido, lastly Link drew The Master Sword and drove it point first into the ground and kneeled before Mido, it was almost comical because Link became the same height as Mido when he kneeled. Mido looked around at the kneeling children and Link in wonder and at that moment felt the deep satisfaction in his gut that could only be attained by achieving something the right way. He didn't cheat to earn this honor from Link and all of his brethren, he had done the right thing and no longer did he need to force the Kokiri to do his bidding, they would do as he asked willingly now so long as what he commanded was righteous. Now that Mido knew how it felt to be truly right, he would never be wrong again. Mido had been redeemed and for a brief time became the first King of the Kokiri. The Grand Korok.


	22. A Temple in the Forest

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 22: A Temple in the Forest

With Kokiris continuing to appear out of the forest rallying to Mido, Link left the guarding of the entrance to the labyrinth to him and passed through into the twisting maze of ancient hedges and walls. The darkness seemed to close in around him as he entered the labyrinth. So bright and cheerful this place had been when Link had come and gone as a child. Now it was a doomed place full of monsters and shadow. Link could feel the evil intentions in the air swirling around him and trying to pierce his will. Link began to feel uneasy and drew the master sword and the blade gave off a faint luminance that seemed to chase away the darkness that tried to corrupt his will.

Link held the master sword in front of him and its faint glow accompanied by Navi's light created a barrier between himself and the evil intentions swirling through the air. Mido had been successful in ensuring that no monsters used the main entrance to the forest but there were evidently other ways that the creatures had found to get into the labyrinth because Link could sense their presence. The Triforce of courage had boosted his senses to the level where he could almost tell how many monsters there were nearby if he thought hard enough about it. Despite his new powers though he couldn't tell exactly where the monsters were. They didn't feel like the monsters Link was used to, they were much different, smarter and more powerful, traits that made them much more lethal than anything Link had yet battled.

Suddenly there was a howl to his left and Link leapt away as silver claws tore through the air where he had stood a moment before. Navi let out a surprised shout and her glow became a sickly yellow. She harassed the monster, bopping into its head and spinning around it too fast to strike long enough for Link to pull his shield off his back and assume a combat ready position. Navi returned to Link's side and immediately began telling him everything about the monster.

"Wolfos, grey breed. It appears to be made stronger by the dark magic emanating from the temple and it has a limp in its right leg from what appears to be an old injury. It swings too hard with its right claw; if you dodge his overshot will give you an opening to attack his spine." Navi rattled off as the wolfos howled and charged at Link. Link blocked two swings from the wolfos using his sword and shield and then jumped back out of range as the wolfos swung with its right claw. Just as Navi had predicted the wolfos overshot when it had expected to hit Link's defense and instead hit nothing. This opened up its back to attack and Link wasted no time leaping forward and plunging his sword into the monster's back. The wolfos let out an agonized screech and then fell to the ground before dissolving in blue flames. When Link killed the monster the darkness seemed to fade a little bit but it rapidly returned as the evil lurking in the temple compensated for the loss.

"There is some evil at work here far greater than what I expected. I am detecting the presence of monsters I am having trouble recognizing, they appear to have the ability to suppress their aura. Some evil trick of Gannondorf, I believe they may be the 'Dark Ones' Mido was talking about" Navi warned. Link kept his sword and shield drawn and advanced into the labyrinth. He made the first turn and barely leapt aside in time to avoid being impaled by a flying spear that burrowed into the wall behind him. In front of him was a creature hidden by shadow so Link could only see a silhouette. It stood on two legs like a man and Link could hear its armor clank, but it was far taller. Almost ten feet in height with a massive iron scimitar hanging at its side and its arm still extended from the throwing of the spear.

"Hylian! Slay the Hylian!" The creature shouted in a voice that was guttural and low like that of an animal, hardly human sounding at all. Link raised his shield as the monster swung its scimitar down at his head he felt his feet sink into the muddy ground as the massive blade slammed down upon his raised shield. Link lashed out with his sword and scored a hit on the creature's leg and it jumped back before Link could strike it again. Black blood stained the pure white blade of the master sword and it did not burn like the blood of monsters did, instead it boiled away as the blade of evil's bane banished it.

It appeared that the Master Sword has also caused a mortal injury to the monster. The wound would not have killed had it been any other sword, but the magic of The Master Sword leeched into the wound and spread through the monster rapidly destroying all that was evil about it. The monster seemed to boil like water and then fade into nothing before Link's very eyes.

"That was a Moblin Commander… most Moblins are the same size as people but the commanders are far larger and more evil. There usually is only one in a place like this, we're lucky we killed it first, its underlings will be scattered and confused without a leader. Gannondorf must have become more powerful than I thought if he is able to summon such creatures that have not been seen since the great wars long ago." Navi stated. Link watched as the blood boiled on the surface of the sword until it had faded entirely into vapor. Never before had he seen such a monster. That did not burn but rather boiled in death.

Link walked around the dark spot where the monster had fallen and noticed that the place had become lighter since he had brought about its death, but slowly darkness was beginning to return to the labyrinth, though slower than it had before. Link continued to follow the path he knew through the maze and didn't encounter any more enemies for a while until he stumbled across one of the normal Moblins that Navi had described as being the same size as a person. It was a bit larger than a regular Hylian but was also hunched over by the weight of its armor and weapons and so it seemed to be the same size or maybe even a bit shorter.

Link disposed of him quickly, parrying the Moblin's spear with his sword and then stabbing the vile creature with the blade of evil's bane. The Moblin fell screeching until the cleansing wound which was as poison to it boiled its blood from the inside out. Link almost felt sorry for the Moblin, knowing that such a death must have been agonizing, but remembering that they were monsters and were not truly capable of feeling pain like Hylians did.

There was again a long period of time where Link ran into no monsters and indeed he did not find any more of them until he came across two walking along what appeared to be a patrol route. Link used his shield to defend against the spear of one while engaging the other with his sword. He killed the first one quickly with a swift stoke that cut it nearly in half, once the first one had been killed the second one was relatively easy. Once Link got used to fighting man-like monsters it became actually quite simple and by the time he reached the end of the labyrinth he had killed five more Moblins.

By now the darkness was beginning to lose its ability to regain cover of the labyrinth when Link killed monsters. There weren't enough evil creatures left in the secret place to spread the same amount of darkness as they had before. Rays of moonlight began to shine through the leaves of the trees and the unnatural darkness began to give way into the brighter dark of night.

At the end of the labyrinth Link reached the ancient stone stair and climbed up towards a long ravine that ended in the yard of the temple where the strange stone platform and the stump where Saria played ocarina as a child lay. Link ran up the stair, unheeding of the possibility of running into trouble at the top, and almost suffered grievously for it. He got lucky when he reached the top of the stairs as Navi shouted 'look out' and the giant creature larger yet than the Moblin Commander swung a massive stone club at him. The edge clipped his shield and spun him around but didn't cause any severe injury aside from some disorientation. Link tumbled backwards down about a dozen steps as the creature at the top swung its weapon down at him and shattered the top step.

"Mountain Troll! Get back!" Navi shouted. Link didn't need to be told twice and he scrambled down the step as the troll began to give chase swinging its club wildly at him. Link put his shield on his back as protection incase the troll got close enough to hit him while he ran and tried to think of something he could do to take it out.

"Use the hookshot, aim for the head!" Navi instructed. Link nodded and reached in his pouch, drawing out the hookshot. Once he had the item ready to use he stopped in his tracks and turned, running back towards his attacker. The move was so unexpected that the troll didn't have time to react as Link ran past it, slashing the master sword at its leg as he passed. The blade cut but didn't cause the same kind of injury as it did to the Moblins. The troll wasn't the same kind of monster as they were and could not be killed by the Master Sword's magic alone; the injury itself had to be what took it down. The troll began to turn and swung its club horizontally and Link ducked beneath the attack. His line of sight was clear once the club passed him and he raised the hookshot, pulling the trigger and firing the spear point directly at the troll's head.

The injury caused by the hookshot was even more grievous than Link had intended as the spear point hurtled through the air and entered, chain and all, into the creature's skull through its left eye. The troll roared in agony and was silenced when Link released the trigger and the chain was ripped out of the monster's head. The creature fell and burned in the sacred blue flame that had engulfed most of the monsters that Link had fought thus far.

The darkness over the labyrinth lifted substantially with the death of the troll and though it was evident that there were still monsters roaming in the maze they had been for the most part neutralized. Link proceeded up the partially wrecked steps to the clearing where so many great things had happened as a child. The place was dimly lit in the night and Link felt his blood turn cold in his veins as he entered it. It was not the same place as it had been when he was a child; it was full of malice and evil now, a dark place it had become. Link walked with sword drawn into the center of the clearing and stood upon the stone platform that was seated in the center of the yard.

Link stood on the platform for a moment and looked over at the stump where Saria had played her ocarina when Link was a child. No longer did her songs grace the woods that had become sad and lost into a darkness of anger and malice. Link gazed sadly for only a few seconds at the stump where Saria had long played her song, then he swallowed he emotions and looked up at the temple entrance. The stairs had long been smote by some unknown force but Link could already see how he was to enter the temple. A tree had grown up at the base from its foundations and had risen upward near the wall, arching over the remnants of the top of the stairs. Link sheathed his sword and pulled out the hookshot, he had just taken aim when something moved on the right side of his field of view. He turned and aimed at the movement with the hookshot, but there was nothing to be seen. He made several rapid turns but there was nothing out of the ordinary. He turned back to where he had originally seen the movement and aimed that way again with the hookshot.

"Don't shoot" A familiar voice said. Link lowered the hookshot and Sheik materialized out of the shadows seemingly from nothing. He reached behind her back and removed the harp from her belt, holding it up she began to play a melody as she walked and spoke with Link.

"This song is the minuet of forest, play it and you will return to this ancient warp platform which stands at the ancient site of Parapa Palace. This palace holds shadows now; some ancient evils have taken refuge here. One already hunts you; he follows you closely and watches curiously. Indeed he was almost the bane of an ancient hero, and he may become the bane of you if you are not careful. He is more skilled in the arts of stealth than I, but he cannot attack without taking physical form which he does not yet have the power to do. Now, play this song" Sheik ordered as she played the golden harp. Link pulled out the Ocarina of Time and quickly caught on with the melody. Link wasn't sure how long they played but he knew that when they finished the edge of the horizon had begun to brighten.

"The minuet of forest has strange power, like the prelude of light it has the power of warp, if ever you need to return to this spot, play that song." Sheik stated. Link put away the ocarina and looked at Sheik from across the platform; there was something strange about her, something almost familiar. Link took a step forward without really meaning to and before he could even blink there was a flash of white light and Sheik disappeared. Link jumped backwards in surprise and looked around for some sign of her but she had totally disappeared, leaving Link standing alone in the center of the yard.

"That… was weird" Navi stated slowly as Link continued to look for where the strange sheikah woman had disappeared to. Link drew out the hookshot and took aim at the overhanging tree that went over the remains of the stairs leading into the temple. Link fired the hookshot and the point stuck in the wooden branch of the overhanging tree and yanked Link upward toward the entrance the temple. Link held on tight as he was pulled high into the air and then landed and rolled on the top step of the broken stairway. Link put the hookshot back in the pouch at his side and then drew his sword, staring now into the temple that he had yet never been able to enter. He deliberated for only a moment before stepping through the door and entering the Forest Temple.

There was no roof in the first area of the temple and the sky continued to brighten as the day approached. Link kept his sword in hand as he advanced into the first room. Under the open ceiling two trees had grown up on either side of the room and the branches had tangled to make an archway that Link passed through with sword in hand.

"The shadow shall not endure the passage of the lightworlders" a dark voice said in what sounded almost like a breath as Link passed through the arch. Link felt as if he were being repelled by some strange force in the room that was only repelled by the master sword. A shroud of darkness seemed to surround him and Link began to feel tired, he fought to stay awake.

"You will endure me!" Link shouted, and with that the blade of the master sword glowed and with a great swipe of the blade the barrier was dispelled. He could feel eyes watching him as he passed into the main part of the room. The voice appeared again but its bearer sounded as if he were injured.

"Foolish mortal, this place belongs to the shadow, and from the light the shadow will keep it. Now… DIE!" the voice exclaimed. Immediately there came two howls, one from either side and two monstrous wolfos leapt from the ground. Dirt flew aside as they appeared from the ground and Link swung his sword wide to force them back as he drew his shield from his back. The wolfos leapt forward as a pair and Link parried their attacks as he rolled backwards. He leapt to the left to put one wolfos between himself and the other so he would only need to battle one at a time.

Link attacked ferociously, his attack pushing the front wolfos onto the rear one. Both beasts were tripped up by the attack and fell to the ground where they were swiftly finished by two expertly done slices of the sword. Link put his shield on his back but kept his sword drawn and turned back to face the door that led deeper into the temple. He could feel the eyes of whatever fell creature had spoken the words of shadow were still upon him and he felt safer with the Master Sword in his hand as security.

Link reached out with his free hand and grabbed the knob of the temple door and turned it. He had expected it to be rusted or unusable in some other way, but the door did not resist him in any way and in fact actually resisted motion less than a normal door would, swinging inward at the slightest touch. Link had opened the door with his hand put he pushed it open with the point of his sword and he kept the blade between him and whatever lay ahead at all times.

The next room was far simpler a trick than the last one. It had been designed to look like a hallway but Navi noticed freshly crumbled mortar on the ground and above it bricks had been removed from the ceiling. Link ran towards the area below the hole, pretending he didn't notice it, and then stopped at the last moment and swung his sword as a giant skulltula descended from the ceiling. The skulltula fell to the ground in two halves and burned in blue flame, briefly illuminating the corridor brightly enough for Link to see that there were no more enemies.

Link reached the end of the hall a moment later and opened the second door in the same manner as the first one and found himself at the end of a great room, barely smaller than the throne room of Hyrule Castle. A high dome loomed fifty feet overhead and magical torches burned on the wall, their glow was not bright but enough to keep the room in a dim state of visibility. In the center of the room there was a booth and around it stood four golden torches, each with a different colored flame about it. One flame of red, one of blue, one of green, and one of purple glowed around this central booth, reflecting in the ancient bronze many shade of colors unnatural.

Link saw that to this room there were five other doors, one on either side and one in either of the back corners and one in the rear. The one in the rear was unlocked but the rest were sealed by locks and chains of silver that seemed to glow in the half-light.

"Be gone, restless spirits of the underworld! I command you! Stand away or be cursed!" Link heard a shout that seemed distant, almost as if underground. Link ran into the room and looked around for some way that led in the direction that the voice had come from. It hadn't taken him long to recognize the voice, which though it had changed slightly from how he remembered it as a child it was still unmistakably Saria. There was a ringing of metal on metal from below and Saria's voice changed.

_Faron ban baktu ahkala morgon!_

There was a roaring sound below and one by one Link heard a total of four shrill cries during the battle below and darkness swirled in from the corners of the room each time and four ghouls of the same color as the torches appeared in the room, each at their respective torch. The flames floated up from the torches and transferred to brands that were held by the ghosts. The Poes then spun in circles like dancers and faded into darkness, taking their flames with them. Immediately with the disappearance of the flames the booth in the center of the room slid downward into the floor and became like a tile in the center of the grand floor.

"Saria!" Link shouted as loud as he could. He ran into the middle of the room and pounded on the bronze plate that had receded into the floor. There was no response from below except what sounded alike to the slamming of a great door.

"That appears to be some sort of magic elevator and it is powered by those magic fires. I can still feel the presence of the fires within the temple, but they are scattered and I cannot figure out exactly where they are through this gloom. Saria is somewhere down there and I would assume that this is the only entrance." Navi stated. Link looked around for any other entrance to the room but his and the door across from it were the only ones unlocked, so for the time being that was his only road. Link crossed the room and climbed up the stairs at the back to the other door.

On the other side of this new passageway Link found a large circular room with a treasure chest in the middle. Link stepped into the room and pulled his shield off his back, sensing that he would not be able to take what was within the chest without a fight. He slowly crossed the room looking either way for any sign of danger. He finally reached the chest without receiving an attack and kicked it open. Inside there was a small silver key that Link assumed would open one of the locks in the main room. Link set down his sword next to him and picked up the key, he dropped it in his pouch and was about to leave when he heard a clicking noise behind him. He grabbed his sword and dared not make any more motion.

The click sounded again and Link knew something was behind him. He tightened his grip on his sword and then without warning rolled aside. The hellish creation that had been sneaking up on him struck the moment he moved but Link was faster than the thing that attacked him. It wore loosely fitting armor and was without flesh or muscle, only bone held together by stiff sinew. It held a bronze sword and a large round shield that appeared to have seen much use and a green flame burned in both its eyes.

"That's a stalfos, basically a giant armed stalchild. The only way to kill it is to take out its head!" Navi warned as Link dodged away. Link regained his feet and faced the monster with his sword and shield held before him. The monster attacked again but this time ready for it Link blocked the sword with his shield and swung his own sword at the stalfos. It blocked but Link's sword glanced off the edge of the shield and continued past it, hitting the stalfos in the side and breaking a rib. Link lashed out with his foot and dislocated the knee before bringing the pommel of his sword down on it, shattering the joint. The stalfos roared angrily and swung its sword at Link. The blade managed to pass Link's shield but bounced off of his chainmail, Link was sure the hit should have broken ribs but by some miracle he escaped mostly unharmed.

The air was forced out of Link's lungs as the sword slammed into him and glanced off his armor. Link was put on the defensive and blocked a few attacks from the monster but managed not to get hit again. He waited for an opening with which to attack and he got it when the stalfos was caught with its sword arm fully extended.

"Take out his sword! Then go for the legs!" Navi shouted. Link bashed the stalfos in the arm with his shield and caused it to lose its sword and then swung the master sword low and broke its femur in two. The stalfos collapsed and before it could move again Link finished it with a stab downward into its skull. The white bony head exploded and green fire shot out in all directions before fading to nothingness. Link took a few deep breaths and soon his lungs recovered from the hit, but he was still sore from fighting.

"Try to be a bit more alert; we don't want to get surprised like that again." Navi warned as Link took a few deep breaths to restore his aching lungs. He wanted to sit down and give himself a few minutes to recover but he didn't have time to do that, he would just have to compensate for it as he went.

Link claimed the key and went back to the main room the way he had come. He found himself constantly short of breath but it was an effect of the hit that was slowly passing, soon he would be back to normal. Link entered the main room and saw that the northeast, north west, and west doors were the three he could access. The east door was on a balcony and no stair led there and he had entered the room from the north door, the south door being the one that led to the outside.

Link quickly decided to use the western door since it was the most obvious in relation to the room of the three, meaning it was likely more important than the other two. Link crossed the room and climbed the shallow stair to the west door and used the recently claimed key to open it. Link put the key into the lock and was surprised when the key seemed to melt into the lock. The silvery glowing chains across the door faded to a dull color and rapidly rusted as if time had been sped up by thousands of times its normal speed. The chains continued to rust for a few seconds before finally giving way, sending the dissolving lock clattering to the floor. Link kicked open the door with his sword in hand and found himself in a large brick room that towered upward as high as the main room did. The only difference was that this room had a spiral stairway in the back right corner that went all the way up to the ceiling and into a hidden room above. Link had hardly entered the room though when there was a screeching sound to his left and something engulfed in blue flame shot towards him from the left.

Link rolled aside as the unidentifiable object soared past him and he swung his sword at it in passing, but it was already outside of his range. Link got a good view of its back as it sped past him but still couldn't tell what it was, from his angle it was just a white circular object wreathed in blue flame.

"Run! Up the stairs where it can't follow!" Navi shouted as it passed. Link didn't need to be told twice; he ran towards the stairway. The flaming object wheeled around behind him and Link chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw the horrible thing that it was. A white skull of Hylian kind with two wings sprouting from holes where the ears would go, the eye sockets glowed green with an unnatural light similar to that of the stalfos and the entire thing was engulfed in blue flame. Link quickened his pace but the thing still caught up with him before he could reach the stairs and Link spun around with his sword and shield ready. He lashed out with his shield first, bashing the monster backwards before swinging his sword at it and to cut it from the air. Even with the enemy disoriented it still took all the speed with which Link could swing to barely nick it with the point of the sword. The blade cracked the bone where it impacted and the skull spun away and for a moment its fire was extinguished. Link didn't bother trying to finish the enemy; that would be a waste of time, he turned and ran to the back of the room and climbed up the stairwell, and from the lack of noise aside from his boots on the stones he could tell he was not being followed.

"I think there is another at the top." Navi warned. Link prepared to swing his sword as they reached the top of the stairs and it turned out Navi was right. Link swung his sword in a great downward strike as he reached the top of the stairs the blade cleaved the skeletal head cleanly in two.

As the fragments of the monster fell to the ground another shiny key fell from within the skull and Link bent down and retrieved it. It was akin to the one that he had found in the other part of the temple and in fact he could spot no differences between it and the original. He couldn't see any immediate use for it so he put it in his pouch and continued to the back of the room where there was an unlocked door. Above the door there was an iron diamond shape with a staring eye that reminded Link of sheik in its center.

The door didn't open like a normal door, but instead slid into the ceiling when Link touched it, and what he saw on the other side was so disorienting that he almost fell sideways when he saw it.

The entire hallway was twisted so the carpet ended up on the wall at the end and the wall became the floor. Link grabbed onto the doorframe for balance and Navi seemed to be endlessly intrigued by the new corridor. After a few moments of gazing Link braced himself and then walked forward. He decided to close his eyes as he walked so the visuals wouldn't be so disorienting and to his surprise the floor didn't seem to tilt and he continued to walk on carpet. He kept walking until his boots hit stone and when he opened his eyes he was in a moderately sized room with a platform in the middle and a treasure chest on the wall, as If the wall were the floor. Link turned and looked back and saw that the hallway now appeared to be twisted the other way. Now he was on flat ground and the back was sideways.

"Magic… some black magic was at work here in the elder days, it would be best we don't linger in this room." Navi warned as Link stepped into the room. Link didn't like the room very much either, there was an ominous feeling of doom in the room that made him feel uneasy and so he crossed the platforms and reached the door on the right side of the room as quickly as possible. He passed through the door and found himself in a room with a stairway that went down. At the back of the room there was a painting with the blue ghost on it and as Link passed it he got the uneasy feeling that he was being watched by it. He went onward into the room at the bottom of the stairs where there was an unlit torch and a door, Link passed through the door and found himself in a great circular room that was much like an arena, and in the center of the room was a chest, guarded by two stalfos. Link raised his sword and prepared for battle.


	23. The Hero's Shadow

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 23: The Hero's Shadow

Link drew his sword and prepared to battle, thankful that the two stalfos were not facing his direction when he entered the room. Navi immediately dove under Link's hat so the monsters wouldn't see the light and fortunately the glowing sockets that served as eyes seemed less attuned to such things. Despite this, one of them began turning Link's way and he quickly charged forward while he still had surprise on his side.

Link crossed the room in only a few seconds and the stalfos hardly had time to screech when it saw him before the Master Sword descended upon it and cleaved through the bones of its shield arm, sending its defense clattering to the floor. It swung its sword in rebuttal but Link easily blocked it with his shield and spun in a neat circle with the intention of his sword cleaving the stalfos in two. Instead his sword stopped short with a clang and he saw that it had met the rusted blade of the other stalfos, which had come to its companion's aid. A moment later the uninjured stalfos swung its shield and bashed Link in the chest, sending him flying several yards backward before sliding on his back on the smooth stone floor.

Navi flew out from beneath his hat, no longer having need for stealth, and quickly began to assess the situation. Link rose to his feet and lifted his sword and shield as the monsters approached and Navi gave a quick analysis of the enemies.

"They're using a roughly planned two pronged attack. Working as a pair they severely limit your ability to attack, making both many times harder to kill than a single enemy. I recommend finding a way to use their proximity to each other to your advantage" Navi rattled off. Link backpedalled away from the monsters as they advanced and then without warning he changed direction and charged directly at them.

The uninjured stalfos had been acting as a guard for the one who Link had injured and was in between Link and his target. The beast raised its shield, expecting Link to swing his sword, but Link had anticipated this and had in fact counted on this very move. To the surprise of the stalfos Link leapt into the air and kicked off of the Stalfo's shield, using it as a platform to leap over him, and then did a somersault in the air with his sword extended which allowed his weapon to connect with the back of the injured one's skull with bone crushing force.

The blade of the Master Sword cut deeply into the thick bone of the monster, and when Link's weight was pressed against it the skull cracked and then was smote by the blade of evil's bane. The surviving stalfos attempted to cut Link out of the air but was not fast enough and only succeeded in nicking the edge of his boot as he sailed overhead. Link rolled when he hit the floor and turned just as the skeletal body of the killed Stalfos fell.

The unharmed stalfos raged and charged forward, swinging its blade madly before it, but Link was too quick for it and within moments managed to land a crippling blow to its leg followed by a swipe that smashed its spine and reduced it to a pile of bones.

With both enemies eliminated Link turned his attention to the chest at the center of the room. It was long across, almost six feet, and was shorter in height than most of the chests Link had come across during his journey. The chest wasn't locked but instead had a latch on the front that had broken many centuries ago. Link reached down and grabbed the lid to the box and gently opened it, unintentionally breaking the hinges and ripping the top off. He tossed it aside and took a surprised step backwards when he saw what lay within. Navi gasped and immediately drifted down into the treasure chest, circling the object contained within in short ellipses.

It was a bow. Five feet long with a golden string and a polished face the color of earth with an embellished grain. The handle was wrapped in red leather along with both tips of the bow and at the bottom of the chest lay a quiver of thirty arrows, with steel points and white feathered hafts. Link kneeled down and pulled the bow and quiver out of the chest. The quiver of arrows fit on his back next to the sword sheath and the bow would stay in the pouch at his side, near the top so he could still draw it if quickly if he needed to.

"That is no ordinary bow, that is the bow of the great fairy, she wielded it in the ancient wars against evil, I wonder how it ended up here…" Navi mused as Link plucked the string of the bow. It made a noise like the string of a harp and he did it again just to hear the sound of it. Link kept the bow in hand and walked towards the door to the next room. In the circular room it was difficult to tell one door from the other, but the one Link had entered through had a blue carpet and the opposite side had red.

When Link passed through the door, he entered a room almost identical to the one on the opposite side of the circular chamber. There was a torch beside him and a stairway and at the top of the stairway was a picture of a red Poe. Link began to walk towards the stairs but Navi didn't move with him, she appeared to be deep in some sort of thought-induced trance.

"Shoot the Poe right between the eyes, do it from back here so you can get used to the way the bow shoots." Navi instructed. Link looked up at the target at the top of the stairs on the other side of the room and raised the bow, drawing an arrow from his back and knocking it to the string. The golden thread of the bow seemed to glisten for a moment and Link realized that it was no string but rather a hair, a thick golden hair that seemed to have an aura of light cast off from it. Link pulled the bow back to full draw and found it at first surprisingly difficult, but after just a moment of adjusting the way he held the bow he got used to it and was aiming down the length of the arrow with ease. He directed the point of steel at the forehead of the Poe, intending to draw a third eye. He double checked his aim tom make sure it was true, and then he let the arrow fly and it soared through the air so fast that he could hardly see it.

The shot was a bull's eye, hitting the dead center of the picture. Link blinked twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, not at the fact that he had hit the center of the painting, but rather that the Poe was no longer in it. A moment later this was confirmed when the picture burst into blue fire and the arrow clattered to the floor. Link slowly walked up the stairs, unsure of what this meant, but Navi had already figured it out.

"There are three paintings like that in this room, if you shoot all three…" Navi started.

"The Poe will be forced to appear, got it." Link replied. He climbed the stairs and picked up his arrow, and found that from where the painting had been, he could see both of the other ones. The one over the stairs he had just climbed had the Poe in it; the other next to the exit of the room was barren. Link reused the same arrow on the second painting and achieved the same result and then picked up his arrow to shoot the third and final painting. To his surprise the arrow didn't seem to be damaged, he inspected it closely to make sure but he could find no damage. Usually an arrow would be cracked by the second shot from a bow with a one hundred pound draw, but the arrows Link had found in the chest appeared to be much stronger.

Link walked right up to the third painting and with this one he didn't bother using the bow, he put the ranged weapon away and drew his sword and shield, immediately using his sword to cut the final painting in half. This time the painting faded from view and the Poe was still there, its dead eyes staring at Link with nothing short of pure malice. Link jumped back as a lantern filled with red flame was swung directly at him. Link attacked in return with the Master Sword and the blade cut the lantern in two and the halves were smote upon the floor. The Poe shrieked and was then silenced as it was cut down and Link stood above where the lantern had fallen, the blue fire continued to burn without fuel where it had fallen and Link found it to be quite cool, it was actually almost freezing his hands as he picked it up and he carried it down to the place where he had entered the room. Link set the flame down on the golden torch that occupied the space by the door and the fire glowed with a sudden brilliance as it was reunited with its magic brand. There was a light grinding noise and Link saw a small trapdoor had opened at the foot of the torch and inside there was a key, he picked it up and put it away and then returned to the circular chamber, through which he proceeded to the room of the blue Poe.

The blue Poe room was identical to the red Poe room, mirrored across the twisted hallway so that Link was now looking at an exact replication of the other room. Link put the arrow back on the bowstring and shot an arrow at the framed picture on the wall, just as before the picture burst into flames and Link did the same thing as he had in the last room to take out the other two.

Just as before the final picture was destroyed but the Poe remained, and Link eliminated the ghostly creature quickly and efficiently. Just as before the lantern fell and shattered on the ground, leaving the flame glowing upon the floor. Link picked up the cold fire in his hands just as he had done before and he could feel a magical energy flowing from it into his body through his gauntlets. A strange energy seemed to be gathering within him and strengthening every time he touched one of the flames, an energy that didn't seem to fade afterwards. He carried it down to the bottom of the room and set it down on the torch, which quickly blazed to life. Two down, two to go. Just as had happened with the other torch a small door opened at the bottom of it and a small key was hidden within. Link picked up the key and placed it in his pouch and continued onward through the series of chambers.

Link passed through the circular chamber once again and through the room of the red Poe to enter a strange room on the other side. Like the other room this chamber appeared to be sideways and right side up at the same time, and connected to it was a corridor that looked like the twisted hallway but was straight.

Floating in the hallway were two skulls wreathed in green flame, but now Link had a weapon with which he could effectively counter them. They both began to float towards him at considerable speed, but two arrows later, both skulls lay on the ground with holes in their foreheads. Link retrieved his arrows sticking out of the far wall of the hallway and stepped through into bright daylight.

Judging by the position of the sun it had been about an hour since he had entered the temple. He had entered into some sort of large open courtyard and Link could immediately tell by the size and shape of the courtyard that it was adjacent to the main chamber where the elevator was. Link took one step out into the courtyard before hearing a great ripping sound to his right. He instinctively drew his sword as he spun and neatly sliced in half a baba plant that had been about to attack him.

"Nice one, I think that door on the other side of the courtyard leads back into the main room." Navi said. Link was about to go to the door leading back to the main area when something drew his attention, an oddly placed well in the back right corner of the yard. He walked over to it and looked down, and saw the smiling face of the green Poe looking right back at him, thirty feet underwater. Link put away his sword and tried shooting his bow down into the well but the arrow only went about half way before stopping and floating back up to the surface. Link grabbed his arrow back out of the water and replaced it in his quiver.

There was something else about the courtyard that had also drawn his attention, a large trench on the other side of the courtyard. Link walked over to it and saw that it was empty, but at the bottom was a large iron plate with a massive lock on it. Neither of the keys Link had found would fit in the giant lock, but Link knew of a particularly large treasure chest that might have one in it. In any event there had to be something useful in it. Link walked to the door that led into the main chamber and saw the glowing silver chains with a small lock barring his path, Link placed one of the two identical small keys in the lock and opened the door, re-entering the main chamber.

The room was better lit now because two of the magic flames, the two that Link had freed, had returned to their torches in the room. There were only two left that Link needed to find, and he already knew where one was. Link crossed the room back over to the towering room that led to the twisted hallway. Link had remembered the eye over the door and apparently Navi had too because she was leading the way there. They encountered the blue skull again and Link shot it before it could chase him and then climbed the stair will all of his arrows still in perfect working order.

Link reached the top and shot two more skulls and recovered his arrows before shooting the eye, the eye closed when it was hit and there was a loud sound of gears moving behind the wall followed by a great grinding noise. After a moment the sound stopped and Link recovered his arrow before passing through the door. The twisted hallway had become straight and Link immediately saw that the room on the other side had changed shape as well. Link passed through the hallway and entered the sideways room and saw that the wall with the treasure chest had become the floor. There was no ladder going down to the floor so once Link jumped down he would be stuck, but there was another hole in the floor that went down deeper, into the dark basement of the temple. Navi flew down first to make sure there was a way out down there. A moment later she returned and flew up to Link.

"There is a door down there and I believe a large chamber on the other side that passes below the main chamber. It isn't the area that the elevator leads to, it goes down deeper." Navi explained. Link nodded and then jumped down to the floor and walked over to the large treasure chest. Unlike the other chests he had seen, this one was majestic in appearance and had a massive lid on it that must have weighed over a hundred pounds. It didn't appear to have been worn by the long years it had spent hidden underground and it took much of Link's strength to lift it up to reveal the treasure within. Just as he had expected, the content of the chest was indeed the key to the gate in the trench. Link picked it up and saw that it matched the size of the lock perfectly. He put it in his pouch which was now very heavy with the things it contained.

Now that he had the key Link went over to the ladder going down into the dark depths of the ancient temple. He grabbed the top rung of the ladder and then lowered himself down over the edge. Link couldn't see how far down the bottom was and Navi helped by flying down to the bottom so he could see the floor. The dark flagstones below were covered by about an inch of black water and Link was immediately reminded of the tunnel that he had gone through to leave the forest all those years ago. He remembered the bots and the keese that had literally infested the place and hoped that this place wouldn't be the same. Link stopped thinking about what he'd like to do because he didn't have any say in the matter, it was go down or go nowhere. There was no other way out. Link descended down to the chamber below and his boots splashed in the water as he landed. Before Navi had a chance to say anything about the number of monsters in the room, Link drew his sword and held it before him. The enchanted blade of the sword cast a dim light throughout the room and Link spotted several pairs of glowing eyes on the floor and ceiling.

"Watch out, I'm sensing four bots and five keese in this room, they seem to be afraid of your sword, you may be able to pass without needing to fight them." Navi warned. Link kept his sword aloft and walked confidently across the room. He was more than halfway across when one of the bots decided to make an attempt at attacking him. Link swung his sword and cut it in half before it even got close to him, the other monsters backed off and Link crossed the room without fighting any more of them.

The door on the other end of the room was unlocked and Link passed through into a room that had been dry before he opened the door. Once again Navi was his main source of light and Link spotted another door at the far side of the great chamber, but something about the room seemed wrong. It was simply a dark room with a dirt floor and once Link closed the door behind him all of the water was absorbed into the powdery dry dirt of the ground.

"Something isn't right here; there is great evil in this room, some ancient darkness that does not fit any monster I have categorized. Watch out, this place is dangerous." Navi warned. Link slowly began to walk into the room with his sword and shield drawn, Navi leading the way with her light.

"What does the aura seem like?" Link asked. Navi had to think about this question for a moment before managing to figure it out. Link kept his sword and shield drawn as Navi spoke.

"Some sort of shadow, I have sensed it since we entered the temple but I thought it was just caused by the monsters in the temple as a whole, now I think it was something following you that intended you to enter this room." Navi warned. Link reached the center of the room and at that exact moment, torches all around the perimeter of the room blazed to life and illuminated the cobblestone walls.

"Hello, friend." Link heard someone or something say from what seemed like every part of the room at once. Link spun in a circle but didn't see anything out of place in the room, he and Navi were alone but some other presence was speaking to them.

"I have been following you for some time now. Normally I would have had an easier time of it, but I had to keep on the down low to avoid being detected by your fairy friend… that's a new trick for heroes, having a fairy." The voice continued. Link now realized what was so scary about the voice. It sounded exactly the same as his. Not an impersonation but quite literally the same voice. Link continued to scan the room for the source of this voice but he couldn't find it anywhere, not until he looked at the floor. His shadow wasn't matching his movements; it was pacing around him, joined to him at the feet.

"I see you have found me, isn't that unfortunate, now what ever will I do?" The shadow mocked. A moment later the head of the shadow emerged from the ground followed by a body and a sword and a shield. Soon it was a dark form the same size and shape as Link, armed with an identical sword and shield but without all of Link's other equipment. Link held his sword before him and the shadow mimicked the move with his own blade.

"What are you? Some servant of evil?" Link demanded. The shadow began to dance in a circle around him, waving his sword and shield as if they were toys.

"I am a servant of none, especially not that filthy pig that you find worthy of calling a villain. I'm just here for my own personal enjoyment. You see, I enjoy the pain and suffering of your kind, Hylians in general, and heroes especially. As for What I am… you may call me _Shadow Link_." The shadow replied. Link kept his sword raised but it was evident that Shadow didn't want to fight… yet.

"Alright, Shadow, what do you want?" Link asked. The shadow grinned and his eyes glowed red like embers. He raised his sword high over his head and began to approach Link at a pace slower than even a walk.

"A fair deal of screaming, pain, and possibly excruciating death would be nice, but the first two will suffice for today, I want to make this wonderful feeling last." Shadow Link replied. And then the darkness charged with his sword drawn. Link raised his own sword in reply and the two blades clanged together, steel ringing on black steel. Link lashed out with his foot to try and kick the shadow in the leg but it anticipated the move and dodged away. Link went on the offensive first this time and swung his sword down at the shadow and then tried to bash him with his shield. The shadow used Link's shield as a step to jump over him and when Link tried to slash him with his sword the Shadow performed an impossible trick, it landed on the blade of his sword, balanced on it so that he was standing on the blade of Link's sword, and then swung his sword as him.

Link managed to dodge backwards and managed to avoid being cut in half, the chainmail saved him from the remainder of the cut but the impact knocked him flat. Link rolled aside as Shadow stabbed downwards and his blade pierced the dirt where Link had lain moments before. Again the shadow tried to stab him and this time Link used his shield from his prone position to block the attack. The shadow prepared for a third stab and that was when Navi showed up. Her glow brightened many times above normal and she flew right into the face of Link's attacker. The shadow seemed temporarily stunned by the brightness and before he could recover Link used a trick that he knew would work on any other shadow.

Link focused all of his thought into making his body as hot as possible and in a single instant blew all of that energy outwards. The resulting ball of Din's fire was so bright and hot that even the furthest corners of the room were illuminated as if in daylight. When the brightness faded there was no sign of the shadow, but Link could still sense the evil presence somewhere in the room.

"So he can wield the sacred flame… that complicates things, oh yes it does. Maybe next time I shall choose a place where he can't use it. Oh yes, yes I know just the place." The shadow said to itself. The torches seemed to brighten again and the lights brightened again in the room. Link returned the Master Sword to the sheath on his back and put the shield away as well before crossing the room to the exit.

"Link, this is very bad, that shadow is a demon of the shadow world, he can only attack those who he matches in physical form, but his power runs deeper than you think. That was no servant of Gannondorf, that was a much older and in some ways far more powerful creature." Navi explained.

"Well, I beat him, didn't I. No problem" Link stated.

"No. what you beat was, to be frank, a shadow of his former strength. He didn't think you would arrive here so soon and so he took his time in gathering his power, now he has all but faded from this place and lurks elsewhere, waiting for another moment to strike. I will be sensing for his magic aura, even in his present state it is quite powerful, I will give you ample warning next time I detect him." Navi replied.

"Why did he wait until now to attack me, why didn't he do this when I was a child?" Link asked. To reply to this, Navi landed on the hilt of the master sword next to the tip of Link's ear, which she grabbed with a hidden hand and pulled closer as if she wasn't already close enough.

"Listen closely because what I'm about to tell you is very important…" Navi said. Despite her being so close to his ear, he strained his hearing in anticipation of a whisper, which was why he was almost deafened by what followed.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Navi shouted, and even though Link could tell it was a joke by the tone she said it in, he still realized that there must have been a reasonably strong element of truth to it. He frowned as Navi went into an explanation of why it was his fault.

"Think of the Temple of Time as a prison. Every time the Master Sword kills something nasty it gets locked away inside the sword and then subsequently gets locked into the pedestal of time when the sword is returned to it. Here is where the problem lies. Your sword has the blessings of the goddess and was tempered in the sacred flames in ancient times. Things locked inside the Master Sword cannot escape, the sword is too powerful for that, but you can only fit so much evil inside such a tiny sword before the strength of the weapon begins to fade. To counter the effect on the sword, the pedestal of time was wrought from the highest rock of Death Mountain and blessed by the seven sages. While the seven sages know how to make a very powerful seal, but they can't quite compare with _Her Grace _if you know what I'm saying. So things transferred into the Pedestal of Time might be able to escape. Simple monsters can never hope to get out of it but things like Gannondorf and that shadow you just battled can conjure up the power to escape, when given enough time of course. So allowing the most powerful monsters to eventually escape is the price paid to allow the Master Sword to last forever." Navi explained. Link almost toned out during the excessively long explanation given to him but managed to hear it all. He opened the exit to the arena room and found himself in a spiral staircase that lead upwards towards somewhere in the above temple.

"I think this goes up to the balcony you saw in the main room." Navi replied, and when Link climbed the stairs he found that she was in fact right. The stairway ended in a door and that door opened onto the balcony in the main area of the temple. Link jumped down from the balcony and his boots hit the floor with a loud thud. Armed with the key that would open the floodgate he walked over to the door of the northeast courtyard and stepped back outside. After the gloom of the underground, outdoors seemed too bright and gaudy and the sun burned his eyes. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and then walked over to the trench.

Link didn't hesitate to jump down into the pit and then pulled out the key in one hand and the hookshot in the other. He inserted the key into the lock but didn't open it, instead bracing his foot against the key so he could turn it that way and then turned and aimed his hookshot at the tree that overhung the trench.

Link twisted his foot and heard the lock click and then fired the hookshot as a horizontal geyser of water attempted to crush him against the opposite wall of the trench. The hookshot struck wood and a moment later Link found himself getting yanked upwards at high speed, ending up rolling on the grass above the trench.

Covered in dirt and grass but otherwise uninjured, Link rose and looked to the well. As he approached he heard the sound of water rushing within and when he stood over it he saw a vortex rapidly descending towards the bottom. Link waited till he could see the floor before jumping down, realizing too late that he couldn't see a way back up. He decided he would cross that bridge when he came to it, for the time being the Poe was retreating down a tunnel beneath the well at high speeds. Link knew he couldn't catch up with him running but he had the bow and a quiver full of arrows and that was all he needed. He drew the bow and took aim at the rapidly retreating ghost, taking a moment to steady his aim before loosing the arrow which went neatly through the ghost's semi-transparent head.

The ghost screeched and faded from existence, its lantern shattering on the ground, unlike the other flames, the green one rose and exited a hole in the ceiling at the other end of the tunnel. Link followed the magical fire, picking up his arrow on the way, and found an identical well at the other end; the only difference was that this well had an overhanging tree that was within range of Link's hookshot. Link used the hookshot and was lifted out of the well by the ancient device. The other end of the well was an identical courtyard except it was on the west side, and Link was confused because there was supposed to be one more Poe and he had already been through every room he had seen an entrance to. Link couldn't think of any place that the purple Poe could be.

"Maybe we missed something, back in the main room?" Navi suggested. Link doubted there was anything they hadn't noticed before in there but lacking any better ideas he approached the door and used his last key to open it, going back into the main room of the temple. The torches on the walls had blown out somehow leaving only the magical ones still burning. Something was wrong in the room.

"The Poe watches, be quick." Navi whispered, jerking to the right. Link saw a shadowy figure in the corner and pulled his bow to full draw but didn't point it in that direction, he waited until he was sure he could turn quickly and shoot the figure before he actually tried to do it. All the while he kept walking towards the center of the room; he didn't stop until he took the shot.

Link spun towards the target with his bow already drawn back and he loosed an arrow. It flew straight and true, but before it reached the Poe there was a screech and the Poe faded from existence in a pillar of purple fire. The arrow passed through the flames and caught fire and Link knew there was no reason to try and recover it. A moment later the Poe appeared before him and by some dark magic managed to fold out into four images of itself that surrounded Link.

"Only one is real, I can't identify the one, they would all be mimicking the original though." Navi quickly explained. Link made the mistake of shooting at the first one he saw and the arrow flew right through it hitting nothing but air and the wall behind it. A moment later a heavy metal lantern slammed into the back of Link's head and knocked him to the floor. He felt a trickle of blood down the back of his neck but ignored it for the time being. He rolled out of the circle of mimic Poes and they all lined up against the far wall as he retreated. Link put away his bow and drew his sword and shield as the line of Poes charged at him. He tried to hit all of them with a sweeping stroke but they all dodged over his attack and descended upon him. He lifted his shield just in time and heard the lantern aimed at his head bounce off it with a loud clang.

Link retreated and put away his sword and shield again, pulling out his bow and running to the far wall again. The line of Poes prepared for their next attack but this time Link had a plan.

"How will you hit all four of them at once? They can anticipate your strategies; they already know what you have from what you've used in the dungeon." Navi asked. Link grinned and held his bow out, pointed at them but without an arrow on the string.

"Simple… I use an unanticipated strategy." Link replied, and then the moment the Poes began to charge, Link reached behind his back and drew four arrows at once, he knocked each and every one on the string and let loose a hail of arrows with a single shot, hitting each and every Poe in a single attack, all four faded from existence and a purple flame rose in the final torch, followed by the rising of the elevator from the floor, his secret path into the basement of the temple.

Without hesitation, Link recovered his arrows and then stepped into the elevator, descending deep into the depths of the forest temple, searching for an old friend.


	24. Phantom in the Deep

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 24: Phantom in the Deep

The elevator went down a long way, Link figured that he was probably near the ceiling of the arena when he reached the bottom. The hallway he entered was a long one, it went several hundred feet back before ending at a massive door. The walls were lined with torches and ugly looking skeletons in armor with horned skulls. Crests of swords crossed behind a shield were present and inscribed upon the shields were many accounts of ancient arcane battles fought by monsters and other foul creatures of the deep. Link didn't take the time to read them, he didn't even take the time to look at them. He sprinted down the length of the hallway, ready for anything to happen but not willing to slow down for it.

After a good half minute of sprinting he reached the end of the hall and he placed his hands on the massive iron double doors at the back. He pushed them open to find another hallway that went for about thirty feet before turning into a stairway. Link noted that the further he went the further apart the torches on the walls became, to give the place the appearance of becoming darker, a simple but brilliant trick of intimidation. Link was not intimidated by it as he continued to sprint down the long stairway.

It took a long time to reach the bottom and Navi was having problems keeping up, she barely managed to reach him and land on his shoulder to recover from the run. Link didn't stop until he reached the bottom. He knew he had reached a very deep place of the earth when he got there. A single iron door barred the path and Link pressed his hand against it, responding to his touch it slid upward into the ceiling and revealed a gloomy and dark room beyond with only a dim green ambient light the source of which Link could not discern.

The walls were of bare stone but were covered eight identical paintings of a crooked road winding between hills and dead trees. Link felt a dark presence in the room, but also a presence of light. The center platform was raised above the level Link could see and he had to enter the room to get there. The moment he was through the door it slammed behind him and he didn't bother trying to open it, he already knew that wouldn't work. He instead continued to the stairs and climbed up them to the center platform.

There was only one thing Link noticed about the main platform, and that was the person kneeling in the middle of it. It had only been less than two weeks to him since he had seen her but for her it had been seven years. He didn't expect her to recognize him immediately so he was surprised when she could call him out without even looking.

"Hero of Time, get back, there is great evil here." Saria whispered. That whisper seemed to resonate through the whole chamber. She knelt in the center of the chamber, dressed all in green but unlike how he remembered her. She had aged slightly, not nearly as much as he had but about as much as the other Kokiri had since the magic of the Deku Tree had begun to fade. Also, unlike how he remembered her, she was armed with a short sword and a staff. The sword waited in a sheath on her left hip and she held the staff in two hands with its base pressed against the center of a Triforce mark on the floor. A green circle of light surrounded Saria and the Triforce marker and Link felt the darkness in the room begin to fade, Saria winced and her knuckles turned white as she gripped the staff harder.

"Silly girl… go back to your village" a dark and ominous sounding voice growled, echoing throughout the room. Saria's grip on her staff tightened but the green glow weakened and the darkness returned to the room. Link could only watch as Saria began to lose a battle against an enemy that he could not see.

"Go back to the shadow… This darkness… cannot… last" Saria groaned. The green halo on the floor turned to red and the Triforce on the floor glowed the color of blood. Saria fell backwards away from it and began shouting curses in the ancient tongue, but the power of the ancient words seemed lost upon the dark presence ever rising in the room.

Link wasn't going to stand by any longer and watch Saria lose, he stepped forward and drew the Master Sword, the blade glowed blue as he held it high and the darkness seemed to retreat from it momentarily.

"It takes more to make a hero than an ancient magic sword." The dark voice laughed, and this time Link could detect a location that it had come from, he turned and found himself faced by a horse and a black rider. Link could tell it wasn't Gannondorf himself, but the figure looked a lot like him.

"It takes more to make a villain than a long black cape" Link retorted, and before the phantom could respond to this Link leapt high over his head and slashed with his sword, cutting the chain that held the phantom's cape around its neck. The cape drifted to the floor and melted into the shadows. The phantom glared at Link when he landed and then unexpectedly began to laugh, a dark laugh that chilled Link to his bones.

"Most impressive, hero… Lets see how long it takes me to kill you." He laughed, and then without warning the horse leapt towards the wall and literally melted into the painting, continuing to ride away down the twisted road within the artwork. Link watched the horseman ride away and then ran over to Saria, who lay prone on the floor next to her staff.

"Are you alright?" Link asked. Saria groaned and shifted a little but made no other response. Navi flew down from Link's shoulder onto the side of Saria's head and looked up at Link.

"I'll take care of her, you take care of Gannon's Phantom. He's in the painting to your left" Navi warned. Link turned and saw that the Phantom was now riding towards him in the other painting. Link drew his sword and shield in preparation and a moment later a purple whirlpool appeared on the surface of the painting and the phantom's horse rode through it. The horse passed over Link's head well outside of the range of his sword and the phantom raised his staff, firing bolts of electricity at Link. The bolts struck their target and two were absorbed into the Master Sword, the third one however hit him. Link had never felt such an excruciating pain in his life, followed by a numbness and a tingling sensation. He managed not to cry out but he dropped his shield as an instinctive response, indeed a response that possibly saved his life since the shield was the largest metallic item he carried. Link sheathed the sword and left the shield on the ground, pulling out his bow he knocked an arrow and looked for a target.

The rider was disappearing in one painting and Link already saw him appear in another, he pulled back the bow to full draw and took aim, waiting for the phantom to enter the real world. A moment later the purple vortex appeared and the rider burst through, only to encounter an arrow from Link's bow. Link watched as Phantom Gannon attempted to fire lightning at him as the arrow soared through the air, headed for his horse. The lightning arced through the air and was conducted to the nearest metal object, namely the point of the arrow, moments before it plunged into the flesh of the phantom's horse.

The horse screeched as the lightning pumped through it and then fell from beneath the phantom and landed on the floor. The phantom growled angrily but didn't waste any time in continuing his attack. The phantom charged a ball of pure energy in his hand similar to how Link had seen Gannondorf do it at the castle. Link shot another arrow at the phantom but it was knocked aside by the monster's staff and Link was sure any other attack that followed would be met the same way. The phantom unleashed the ball of energy and Link rolled aside. The blast of power hit the flagstones where Link had stood a moment before and they exploded outwards, leaving a small crater in the platform.

"Link, block with your sword!" Saria shouted from her position on the floor. Link dropped the bow into the bag at his side and drew his sword as the phantom unleashed another attack.

Link swung his sword and the ball of energy changed colors as it hit the blade, no longer electric blue like the phantom's other attacks, but golden like the power of light contained within the Master Sword. The phantom wasn't prepared to block his own attack and it slammed into him without resistance. Link didn't hesitate to charge forward as the Phantom began to fall out of the air, but the phantom wasn't as badly wounded by the attack as Link had hoped and from its kneeling positing that it had fallen in, it rolled past him and slammed the butt-end of its staff against the small of his back. Link spun around and swung his sword but just ended up with his blade crossed against the polished bone staff of his enemy. The butt end of the staff lashed out again, using its contact with the sword as a pivot, and slammed into Link's side just below the ribs. Link crumpled under the blow but managed to jab with his sword and land a minor cut on the phantom's side. The phantom retreated away from Link and rose back into the air while Link gasped and held his side where he had been hit.

Saria attempted to rise and join the battle but hadn't recovered yet and fell back to the floor with Navi hovering over her showering her with tiny magical waves. Navi wasn't a healing fairy and so could only do very little to help Saria regain her strength, but what little she could do was being done.

Link raised his sword again as the phantom prepared another attack and when it came his way he deflected it as he had done before. This time the phantom was ready for it to happen and batted it back with his staff. This time it was going faster than when it had originally been launched and Link was barely able to swing in time to knock it back. The energy sphere became a deadly ball with which they were playing catch, both trying to make the other drop it. Link was having trouble keeping up with the double ends of the staff but the cut he had got in on the phantom was on the arm and was slowing down its staff.

Eventually though, it was Link that lost their deadly game, the single blade of his sword couldn't keep up with the staff and the energy sphere slammed into his chest, knocking him back and burning him through his chainmail armor. To his surprise his clothing seemed unharmed by it, but he could feel his skin burned beneath it, he wasn't sure how bad it was but his chest felt wrong to him.

"Link! Get up!" Navi shouted. She left Saria and began flying towards him as fast as she could. The Phantom descended towards him faster and Link tried to roll out of the way, but something about the energy of the blast had stunned him and he couldn't move. The pointed bottom of the staff approached his head and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"NO!"

Link had never heard Navi shout like that, the voice sounded almost human-like, and then the phantom no longer filled his vision, but instead a glowing white image of a tall woman in a white dress wielding a glowing sword. The end of the staff met the sword and then Navi in her new form attacked in return and left a deep gash in the phantom's leg with her sword.

"For Her Grace!" Navi shouted, she swung her sword in a whirlwind of fast and wide strokes that the phantom of Gannon could hardly keep up with. Link had no idea that Navi could do what she had done, she had become a great fairy. Link felt his energy return and he rose to his feet running forward to join Navi in the fight against the phantom.

Navi's sword was knocked from her hand as the phantom used a parrying blow and it clattered lightly to the floor, then Navi caught in two hands the end of the phantom's staff as he attempted to attack her again. A bright light shone in her hands and a growing electric glow from the phantom's power began to emanate from the staff, they were battling each other, challenging the other's magic powers.

"Die, Fairy… DIE!" The Phantom roared. There was a great blast of light and both Navi and the phantom were sent flying backwards, like two magnets pressed together they had become too powerful for each other and had been forced apart. Navi's glow diminished but she remained in her great form. The phantom flew back and one of the paintings on the wall was smote by him as he hit it. In response the seven other paintings of the room also broke in the exact same way, their connection of black magic broken.

Navi hovered into the air and her glow began to return, though not nearly as bright as before, and Link could see that her stature had shrunk slightly, returning towards her normal size.

Still, she attacked the phantom and this time it was her and Link as a pair, the phantom couldn't keep up with both of them, even though in single combat he was superior to both of them in their current states. Link managed to levy another cut against his leg while Navi kept his staff busy with her sword.

"ENOUGH!" The Phantom shouted, and with that he slammed his staff into the floor and a massive blast of pure energy sent Link and Navi to the floor. Navi's glow faded almost entirely and she flew back against the wall of the chamber. Link was thrown back all the way across the platform and skidded across the floor before slamming into the wall. He lost his grip on his sword and it skittered across the floor before coming to rest against the far wall of the room, but he was in no condition to keep fighting even if he still had it.

There was an angry shout that was not in the phantom's voice and a moment later it shrieked and spun around, backhanding Saria so hard that she slammed against the far wall of the room. Her short sword still protruded from the Phantom's back and he pulled it out and threw it to the floor. The blade of the weapon smoked and then disintegrated as it fell to the floor.

"Foolish bitch! Only the hero's sword can slay me!" the phantom laughed. Saria didn't rise until the phantom turned towards Link and began to advance towards him. Link picked up the sword of Navi and attacked the phantom with it. The phantom fought with his staff and easily outmatched the wounded Kokiri. Link fell to the floor and held up Navi's sword in two hands, it glowed slightly but Link knew what little power it had would not be enough to kill the phantom. That wasn't what he was counting on either though.

What Link was counting on happened as the phantom prepared to plunge the pointed end of its staff downward into his body. There was a flash of steel and the blade of the Master Sword cut both the legs out from under the phantom. He fell past Link and its staff slid out of reach, he was too shocked to comprehend what had happened until he turned over and saw Saria standing over him holding the Master Sword in two hands. She was barely able to carry it, but she had done and Link took his time rising to his feet.

The phantom desperately tried to claw its way towards its staff but Link stomped down on its back and then raised the sword high over head before plunging it down into the back of Gannon's phantom. There was a wail so loud that it must have been heard across half of Hyrule, and then the phantom died, absorbed into the Master Sword. Link pulled out the blade and the body seemed to stand up of its own accord, but it did not move on its own, rather it appeared to be lifted into the air by its neck so its head, arms, and legs hung free.

"What a worthless creation that Phantom was, so much of my power he took to raise, only to fail when he entered real combat. I shall banish this trivial thing to the gap between dimensions." Gannondorf's voice rang through the chamber. A purple vortex opened in the floor and the phantom descended into it, already killed by Link's sword its body would rot in a forgotten void where restless dark spirits would devour its flesh. Link limped around the chamber and recovered his arrows and shield before sitting on the floor on the edge of the platform. Saria picked up the remains of her sword and her staff and stepped into the center of the chamber. She kneeled and placed her staff as she had before in the center of the Triforce mark on the floor and began to mutter words in the ancient tongue.

The green circle of light once more appeared around Saria and this time there was no shadow to combat it. The light spread through the chamber and suddenly everything in the room began to disintegrate, everything except Link and Saria, and then they too faded from the world, disappearing into the light…

((()))

"The Forest Sage is freed, at last one small piece of Hyrule has become a safe refuge from Gannondorf's evil. He cannot lightly send servants of his kind there anymore. Its magic boundaries are restored." Sheik said. General Lector looked down at Kakariko village from his vantage point upon a rocky outcropping several hundred feet above the highest terrace. Work was being done to make the villages defenses stronger, but there was no way that they could hold off the full might of Gannondorf if it came to that.

"You want me to evacuate the village, send all of our people into the woods to hide among the Kokiri?" Lector asked. Sheik shook her head at this and in response spread a map of Hyrule across the rock between them. She pointed at a path that led straight from Kakariko to the forest.

"Just the women and children, and make it voluntary, they don't have to leave if they don't want to." Sheik replied. Lector looked back at the map, quickly running through in his mind the areas that the Hero of Time would liberate.

"Death mountain is next, if he destroys the great dragon and frees the gorons then we will have two armies with which to defend ourselves." Lector replied. Sheik looked up at the mountain and shook her head.

"Their seven year war with the fire breather has depleted their numbers, less than a hundred warriors remain to defend their city, while a Goron may be as strong as a brace of Hylians, they are only good in single combat, they cannot fight as an army." Sheik stated. Lector stood up and looked towards the mountain, a wreath of flame circled its mount and when he strained to do so, he could see the writhing dragon circling the high peak, soaring in and out of the crater.

"When do you think Gannondorf will decide to attack us?" Lector asked. Sheik looked to the forest where minutes ago the hero of time had freed the forest sage.

"He now knows that Link is strong enough to challenge him and that the Triforce of courage is with him. I should expect that if he decides to wage war based on this, he would do it very soon. The Gerudo no longer follow him though, they returned to the desert and will not answer another call to war, I would expect him to use monsters and they will take time to summon, he will not be ready to attack for at least a few days. That is assuming that the response he chooses is open war, but I would expect something much more subtle." Sheik replied.

"You mean he'll try and… no." Lector gasped as a possibility dawned on him.

"Bongo Bongo, a demon of the ancient world, the demon that dwells just beneath this village, only a very powerful curse could unleash him but with the Triforce of power upon his hand there is no limit to what he can do. It would take a while, but I expect the demon will be fully revived very quickly, if we are extremely lucky it would take a month. And that is if we are lucky." Sheik said. Lector dropped to his knees and slammed a palm against his forehead.

"What can we do against so powerful a demon?" Lector asked.

"Not us, the Hero of Time will destroy it. Our job is to gather an army and defend all the places where he is not." Sheik said. Lector didn't like the idea of putting so much hope in one man, but he didn't have any say in the matter. He began climbing down from the rock towards the village. Lector took one last above view of the walls that were currently under construction.

"We have work to do."

((()))

Link woke up looking at the sky. White clouds drifted lazily across the field of blue and off to his right the sun shone brightly. The gloom that had seemed to cover the forest was gone, replaced by the same brilliance he remembered from his childhood. He was sore all over and felt huge bruises and gashes where he had been smote by the Phantom's staff. If the gloom had still been present he would have gotten up immediately, but something about the restored peace in the forest told him there was no need for haste.

Link rolled over and found that The Master Sword lay next to him, along with Navi's sword a few feet away from him. Navi had remained in her great fairy form and lay on the ground about fifty feet away near a sprout that protruded a few inches from the ground and was adorned by two perfect green leaves. The sprout was in the center of a circle of light cast down through a great canopy of leaves belonging to a single great tree.

They were in the meadow of the Great Deku Tree. Once again Link found himself in the very spot where his quest began, where the guardian of the forest had sent him into the world.

Link stood and gazed once more upon the decaying tree and the sprout in its shadow. The sprout was hope, hope for a new future for all of the Kokiri. Link walked over to Navi first, her glow was faint and there were multiple cuts across her body that leaked a translucent blue fluid that seemed to glow like she did.

"Navi will live." came a voice from Link's left. Link spun and looked and saw that a creature that looked like a deku scrub stood where the sprout had been. Link jumped back in surprise but after a quick look he realized that the creature _was _the sprout, or rather, had been the sprout hidden mostly beneath the ground. The tip of the sprout was atop its body and two small branches stuck out from either side with leaves for fingers, its body did not end in legs but rather widened into the ground where a system of roots supplied it with all the water and minerals it needed.

"I see you are surprised, I won't always grow that fast, it will take me at least five hundred years to become as large as my father." The sprout said. Link approached it and heard footsteps behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Saria had come up behind him using her staff as a walking stick. No longer did she have the green tunic of a Kokiri, now she wore a long green dress and a robe of the same color that nearly reached the ground. Her staff had changed from plain wood to a rod of steel and gold inlaid with emeralds. She also appeared to have become older, her appearance was now more mature and less carefree then she had been before.

"Both of you were friends of my father, you have become compulsory parts of a quest on which the fate of this land hinges, and yet neither of you have been told the total truth about even your own lives." The Sprout said. Saria stood next to Link and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning against his side. Link couldn't believe he had been that short once, actually even shorter because the Kokiri had grown since the death of the Great Deku Tree.

"Link, the lies you have been told run so deep that I must address them first. your story began 19 years ago, in a small village east of lake hylia that has since disappeared…

((()))

_Fire rose high into the night sky and illuminated the landscape for a hundred yards from the village, its angry glow reflected in the mirror-like surface of the lake. Four there were that ran from the village, pursued by a dozen Moblins. One was a father, one was his wife due to give birth, the other two were men of the village armed with swords and bows._

"_Get your wife out of here, we will cover you!" one of the men shouted, the two villagers turned and drew their bows, suppressing the pursuing Moblins with them while the man and his pregnant wife ran. The man held a drawn sword in his hand and very quickly needed to use it. The woman had to stop because the pain of running while pregnant had become too great. Not a moment after they had stopped, a Moblin leapt out of the tall grass to their right and swung its sword at her. The man stepped in the way and blocked before fighting back and beheading the creature._

_The woman drew her knife and tried to keep running but she couldn't go any further. The man sheathed his sword and then lifted his wife in two arms. He ran carrying her as fast as he could towards the only safe place he knew, the forest. He felt exhaustion wearing him down and fought it off as long as he could._

_There was a whistling sound to his right and an arrow pierced his leg, sending him and his wife falling to the ground. He stood with his sword drawn, looking for the monster that had shot, but he saw too late as an arrow was let loose from the attackers bow and it struck him in the chest, piercing his heart._

_The wife screamed and ran but she too was hit with an arrow, the arrow entered through her back and exited to the right of her heart, somehow not hitting any major arteries, but so close to the heart it didn't matter, she would very soon die. The archer stood from his concealed position and was then struck by a Hylian sword. The wife didn't heed this though, she stood with the little strength she didn't realize she had and stumbled towards the forest. She didn't know how long she went but it must have been hours, she ended up in middle of a meadow, dominated by a single great tree._

"_Come out, child, it is not by accident that this woman was allowed to enter my meadow." A voice rang through the clearing. The woman looked around to try and see who had spoken but there was nobody there, not until a figure appeared on the edge of the clearing. She thought it was the figure who had spoken but it soon became apparent that she was no more than a little girl, probably about twelve years old. The voice that she had heard was that of a grown man._

"_She is wounded" The girl said. Her hair drifted in the breeze, green as summer leaves, a clay ocarina lay in her hand and on her shoulder was a green fairy._

"_Please, I can't see you whoever you are, be you god or man, but if it is in your power, please save me. If that is too much to ask of you, then please, save my baby." The woman said. She swore she saw a shape that looked like a face upon the tree blink._

"_I am not god or man, I am known as The Great Deku Tree, the children of the forest, the Kokiri, live here with me." The Deku Tree said. The woman fell down but looked up at the tree, her eyes pleading._

"_Please, help" She begged. Saria stepped forward and placed a hand on the womans forehead. She felt calm but no less injured when the hand of the Kokiri influenced her._

"_I cannot create life, only transfer it from one willing being unto another. Wouldst thou have me do this?" The Great Deku Tree asked. The woman, now so weak that she could hardly speak, nodded her head yes._

"_It will be a boy" the Kokiri girl said, holding one hand against the woman's chest and the other against her forehead._

"_Call him… Link" the woman whispered to Saria. There was a moment of silence and then a green glow emanated from the great tree. The green light reached the woman and so she began to fade into a shower of golden light, and that light became concentrated in one single point too bright to look upon._

_When the light faded, a baby lay upon a bed of grass at the roots of The Great Deku Tree. Saria hesitantly bent down and picked up the boy from the ground, lifting him up and holding him against her chest, a precious bundle in her arms._

"_Thou shall follow the final wish and call the child Link. Thou shall raise him as our kind. I sense great power in his fate, he shall never be told of this day."_

((()))

Link fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands, he felt like he had been hit in the gut with the Phantom's staff again. Saria placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and he almost brushed her away but decided not to, it was not her fault that the Deku Tree had commanded her not to tell him the truth about where he came from. He remained on his knees for a moment before looking up at the face of the sprout, nearly at his standing height.

"I am sorry you must be told in this way, but there was no other way for this to transpire, I hope that you understand." The sprout said, Link just sat there for a moment, comprehending what he had just been told. All along Mido had just been trying to tell him the truth.

He wasn't a true Kokiri.


	25. A Reason To Summit

The Legacy of Hyrule

By: Robert Siegfried

Chapter 25: A Reason to Summit

"Saria, the half truth that has been given to you was far less vile and evil than the one bestowed upon Link, but it too needs addressing as you have surely felt its effects already." The sprout said. Saria turned and looked at it, waiting for it to continue speaking.

"The Kokiri as a race have failed, they will no longer remain young eternally, at least not in their present form. You had to be told they could be saved or you would have never entered the forest temple on their behalf. Gannondorf's evil runs too deep and his power is so great that his scar has been felt eternally on this forest's magic." The sprout said. The roots of the tree shifted and it turned slightly towards Link.

"There is another thing. Though I am young I still have the sight and wisdom to see many things mortal eyes cannot. What I am about to tell you will most certainly change the way you view yourself and your quest. For good or ill, the one you know as Sophia survived your blade. I do not know her intention, and I do not know if you shall ever meet her again, but I do know that her survival can be a great danger, or a great gift. Does my news frighten you?"

Link took a step back and his eyes widened in shock. For a long time he had thought himself a killer, now he found that the one his had struck down had never died. Link looked around as if expecting to see her somewhere nearby, but he already knew before he did that the odds of him finding her right then and there were astronomical. Saria appeared shocked by the news too, but at the part about Link having killed or attempting to have killed a person.

"You cannot dwell on that now though; you have business elsewhere, places that need your strength to aid them. You have no doubt noticed that your guardian fairy has assumed a greater form, and though all fairies can for a short time assume this power, the change that your fairy has made will not be temporary, she will be the vanguard of the forest in the coming war, the great fairies will follow her into battle and fight war on her behalf. That is what the forest has to give to this war; all five of the great fairies of Hyrule will follow her into battle. But first she must be revived; she must be brought to the fairy fountain at the summit of Death Mountain to be blessed by its magic waters." The sprout said. Link nodded and without any further speaking he turned and walked over to Navi's prone form. He knelt down and picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, she was incredibly light for being the same size as an average built Hylian, by some sorcery she only weighed at the most fifty pounds to him, barely more than his chainmail armor.

"I must stay here; I cannot leave the Kokiri at such a time as this. But there is still help I can give you. My magic is stronger than it was before I became what I am, I can lighten your load a bit." Saria said, she walked around Link's side and grabbed the pouch in her hands, with its weight being a third of everything within; it already weighed more than thirty pounds. Saria closed her eyes and mumbled something in the Ancient Hylian tongue and a green glow enveloped her hands and the pouch. The light faded after a moment and with it much of the weight that had been burdening Link since his quest began. When she let it go it couldn't have weighed more than ten pounds.

"Before I was able to enchant it to reduce the weight by three times, now it is by ten, and there is more." Saria said. She reached into the folds of her robe and pulled out a green medallion with the insignia of the forest temple upon it. Link felt a strange power emanating from it and when he picked it up he immediately felt vitality flowing through him.

"That medallion is a source of magic; with it you will be able to perform far more powerful spells than before. I cannot teach you any that you would be able to use but I can give you this to empower the spells you already know." Saria said. Link put the medallion inside his pouch and then knelt down in front of Saria. She set her staff on the ground and then stepped forward and grabbed Link in a tight embrace, Link thought he could hear her crying into his tunic but he knew better than to say anything.

"Link, promise me you'll come back this time?" Saria pleaded. Link set down Navi's sword and hesitantly put his arm around his childhood friend.

"You know I can't make that promise, but I'll do my best." Link whispered. Saria nodded and didn't let him go for a few more seconds. Link didn't mind, he too wished he had been given more time back when his quest had begun, but now that he had it he didn't know what to do with it. Saria took a step back at long last and looked up at Link with watery eyes.

"I'll be waiting for you, no matter how long it takes." Saria said. Link picked up Navi's sword again and tucked it into his belt. Saria pointed up at the lost woods on the cliff above the meadow.

"In the woods there is a secret tunnel that leads into the city of the mountain dwellers. I will lead you to it." Saria said. "It is unfortunate that I cannot take you further."

"The outside world is cold and evil, it is no place for a Kokiri" Link replied. Saria turned and led him in the direction of the lost woods. Link followed and within minutes they were engulfed by massive trees. It took a while to reach the path Saria spoke of, but when they reached it, Link was almost afraid to enter it, a road beneath the ground, an entrance to the underworld. It was the only way to quickly reach the mountain though; otherwise he would need to run across half of Hyrule to get there. Though Navi in her new form was extremely light for her size, he didn't think he would be able to carry her all the way across the fields of Hyrule.

"This is where we say good bye again. I will miss you Link." Saria said. Link looked down into the dark cavern beyond and then back at Saria.

"I'll come back sooner this time, I promise." Link said. With that he turned and walked down the steps into the darkness beyond. Link descended and the blackness rose to join him. Link disappeared into the darkness below carrying Navi on his shoulder.

((()))

The darkness in the subterranean tunnel made judging distance and time nearly impossible. Within a few short hours Link had no idea how far or how long he had been travelling. He suddenly realized how important Navi had been to him once he no longer had her guidance, to make matters worse, in her new form it was possible that she would be absent for the rest of his quest.

The total darkness continued to play tricks on his mind but he didn't let it move him from the straight path, even when other ways taunted him with false gifts of light and providence. Soon, the other paths vanished and Link was walking in solitude carrying Navi in her new form on his shoulder. Occasionally Link reached spots where he could hear his feet splashing in water but he never got to the point where his progress was actually impaired by it.

After an even longer time of walking, Link reached a point where he couldn't hear splashing any more either, though he could still feel occasionally a splash that told him he was walking in water. Sound and vision had gone away, and soon his feeling followed, then the smell of the underground vanished, and finally the taste of stale air left his mouth and he was completely without sense, continuing to stumble endlessly until a voice pierced his mind.

"Three ways there are, the road of fire, the road of stone, and the road of ice. Which road will you take?" The voice asked. Link's eyes were opened and all his senses returned. He saw three tunnels ahead of him, one lead down and a red glow emanated from it, one went straight towards what Link assumed was the Goron village, the third went left and up and a frigid air blew down from it.

"The road to the fountain of The Great Fairy" Link replied.

"There is no such road, but if The Great Fairy you seek, then you must follow the frozen road." The voice replied. Link debated for a moment whether or not to trust the voice, but he remembered that The Great Fairy's fountain was at the top of the mountain and that was where the road of ice would logically lead. Link turned left and began to climb the stairway upwards, the air continually growing colder as he walked. Link was glad for the extra layers of clothing from the temple of time but the chainmail became so cold in the frigid air that he could feel it through the gambeson and shirt he wore beneath.

As Link reached the top of the stairway and the ring of fire around the top of the mountain became visible, he heard a familiar skittering noise and drew the Master Sword in one hand and Navi's blade in the other. A blue colored tektite flew out of the snow around the edge of the stairway headed straight for him. Link swung the Master Sword in a wide arc and the weapon sliced straight through the monster's armor before it even had a chance to screech. Link saw other tektites nearby but they hissed as he exited the stairway and they saw Navi in her great form slung over his shoulder, even unconscious and unarmed herself, they were afraid of her. Link wondered what kind of part that would play in the war to follow. Link put the Master Sword back in its sheath so he could hold onto Navi with one hand and wave her sword to chase away the tektites in the other. He didn't know where the fairy's fountain was other than very close to the top of the mountain. As he climbed he noticed that the temperature was no longer dropping, but rising, and very soon the ground was again visible, though red and completely barren of life. It was because of the ring, the red wreath of fire that encircled the summit of the mountain of death.

As Link climbed the temperature rose, soon the ground was no longer covered in snow and instead steam hissed through cracks in the ground, nothing looked how it should have but Link continued to walk anyways looking for any sign of the entrance to the Great Fairy's Fountain. Finally after several minutes of looking, Link spotted a large doorway with ancient Hylian runes inscribed around it that seemed to lead into the mountain. Link turned towards the door and approached it and no sooner had he begun to move than a roar went up behind him. Link looked over his shoulder and saw what appeared to be a giant flaming serpent soaring through the air towards him. Link ran for the entrance into the mountain and the creature followed him, it roared and a fireball shot from its mouth. Link dodged aside as the fireball hit the ground and exploded with the force of a bomb, sending him and Navi flying through the air.

Link's ears were ringing from the detonation and he rolled over to see the dragon preparing to shoot fire at him again while he was down, just before it shot there was a flash of steel in midair and two small daggers appeared in the side of its neck. Link wasted no time in getting to his feet and picking Navi back up. He looked in the direction the daggers had come from and saw a familiar camouflaged figure standing among the rocks, Sheik had come as if from nowhere just in the nick of time.

Sheik wasn't alone either, a few of the remaining Knights of Hyrule leapt up out from beneath the rocks and began shooting bows at the massive dragon. The dragon's attention was drawn from Link who began to draw his own bow, but a look from Sheik told him to do something entirely different, he stopped moving for his weapon and instead began to run for the entrance to the fairy fountain. He got through the entrance just as a few Gorons leapt up from a hidden place near the entrance and began throwing massive boulders through the air at the dragon. The dragon shot a fireball at the Gorons and Link dove through the entryway just as the blast demolished a large section of the wall next to it. Link ran deeper into the grotto as a second blast hit the top of the archway and demolished it, sending the ancient stone tumbling down to block the exit.

A small gap only a few inches across at the top of the rockslide was the only immediately visible source of light and it gave Link just enough that he could see the rough shape of the room. Sure enough, at the back there was the fountain which began to glow dimly when he looked upon it. Link carried Navi up to it, and unsure of what to do, placed her in the sacred waters of the fountain with her sword. There was no change.

Link noticed a stone tablet inset into the floor in the center of the platform that bore the mark of the Triforce. He bent down close and was barely able to read it even when his face was practically touching it.

_When Darkness Casts its Spell_

_And Evil Rules the Sacred Land_

_The Song of Time Shall Be an Awakening Call_

_To the Fairy who shall Rule them All_

Link reached into his pouch and pulled out the Ocarina of Time and played the Song of Time. The notes of the sacred melody resonated throughout the chamber and then slowly echoed away to nothingness. The glow of the fountain rose and Link looked down into it, a face was looking back up at him from beneath the water, but it was not the one he expected.

Gannondorf, the evil king was staring at him through the mirror-like waters of the fairy fountain; somehow the Dark Lord had discovered a way to penetrate even the most sacred of Hyrule's secret places. Link almost drew his sword, but realized that the image in the water could do him no harm. Gannondorf continued to glare through the waters for a moment before speaking in his evil voice, the voice that Link had never wanted to hear again in his life.

"So, this is the Hero of Time. You're not as big as I thought; it would appear that the goddesses have been lax in their choice of servants." He said. Link felt a dark presence enter the room and felt as if his energy were being sapped by some dark power.

"Be gone, this place is not for those of your kind!" Link ordered. Gannondorf wasn't fazed by this remark but instead just grinned and his eyes shifted over to Navi who still lay in the waters of the fountain.

"I had expected that you would come crawling to The Great Fairy for help, and though it displeased me very much that she could not be destroyed, I was satisfied with turning this fountain into her prison. You could not wield the power it would take to destroy my spell." Gannondorf laughed evilly, Link drew the Master Sword and raised it high over his head. He willed all of the power of Din's Fire he could muster into the blade and it glowed red with pure energy before he jammed it down into the forehead of the image of Gannondorf. The water around Gannondorf's image and the sword boiled as the two powers faced each other, neither one yielding to the other. Gannondorf's confidence was broken by the sudden and courageous attack on his curse, but his power remained unshakable and he focused all of it into preserving the seal on the Great Fairy.

Link too focused all the energy he could muster into the attack on Gannondorf's curse, but it wasn't enough and he could feel a weariness beginning to spread into his arms and legs. He continued pouring everything he had into the sword but it still wasn't enough to break Gannondorf's spell.

_Link, I am with you_

Link heard the voice of Rauru in his mind. A dim golden glow began to surround the sword and Gannondorf grimaced as the onslaught against him grew more powerful. The mark of the Triforce of Courage on the back of Link's hand appeared and glowed brightly and its magic joined Rauru's to make the blades power many times more than Link alone could have given it.

_Link… My Friend, I am with you!_

The second voice was that of Saria, a bright green glow that spread into the blade of the sword accompanied her voice and the glow spread from the sword and into the water of the fountain, Gannondorf's image began to fade and the magic glow spread through the water of the fountain until the entire place glowed with the magic of the Triforce and the two freed sages. Gannondorf's presence in the fountain faded entirely and a film that was like glass shattered on the surface of the fountain and faded. The Great Fairy was freed and Link slumped to the floor, the Master Sword falling from his hands into the waters of the fountain.

Link didn't have the energy to rise and retrieve the blade. His legs had given out and he was half sitting and half lying down against the edge of the magic fountain. He sat for a while and slowly began to feel his body recovering from the stress he had put it through. He turned over and just remained still for a moment on his hands and knees, breathing heavily and looking at the floor. A drop of sparkling water fell on the floor in front of him and he looked up to see where it had fallen from.

The hilt of the Master Sword hovered about a foot away from his face; the blade was glowing faintly and was held in the hands of the Great Fairy who was looking down at him with a gleam in her eyes. She looked weaker now than she had before, her magic power weaker than it had been before. Her glow had diminished and her body was more transparent than it had been before, to the point where Link would have been able to read a sign that was behind her if there was one.

"Did you drop this?" The Great Fairy asked. Link reached out weakly to grab it but felt as if completely without energy. The Great Fairy pulled it away and Link's hand fell short, he lay flat on the floor and The Great Fairy looked down on him with a look of sadness.

"Did you drop this?" The Great Fairy repeated the question. Link tried to speak but no words came from his mouth, finally after a few moments of trying he managed to get out a hoarse whisper.

"Yes" Link replied. The Great Fairy hovered down to his level and placed a hand on his head and immediately all of the strength he had spent fighting Gannondorf's curse returned to him. He slowly began to stand and The Great Fairy held out his sword again. Link reached out and this time The Great Fairy didn't pull it away, but as he grabbed it and pulled it towards him a golden glow trailed from the hands of The Great Fairy and was absorbed into the weapon.

"I like an honest person, so I will return something better. I have blessed your sword with the Power of the Beam. If you will it to do so, your will be able to stab things at a long distance with this power. You must leave your fairy with me and I will do all I can to forge her into the weapon Hyrule needs." The Great fairy said. Link turned towards the boulders that had fallen in the way out, only a small gap remained at the top through which a dim light filtered through. Link stabbed his sword experimentally towards it and a glowing beam of energy shot out of the end of the sword and shattered on a boulder. Link could imagine that it would be devastating against a monster.

Link approached the block and pulled out a bomb. As he reached it he looked through the hole to make sure there was nobody on the other side, and found himself looking straight into the masked face of Sheik.

"Cozy down there?" Sheik asked, laying down on a flat boulder near the hole so her head rested at the opening. Link began tossing the bomb from hand to hand as Sheik eyed him through the gap.

"Well, I was about to use this to blast my way out of here, but you're sort of in the way." Link replied. Sheik stood up and stepped down from the rubble pile.

"I was expecting something more like a thanks for chasing off the massive dragon from hell, but that'll do. Feel free to blast away." Sheik said before clearing the area around the pile. Link pulled the cap off the end of the bomb fuse and placed it, then ran a good distance back down the tunnel before it detonated and blasted out enough of the rubble for Link to squeeze through. Link walked back over to the opening and stepped through into the dazzlingly bright sunlight. Sheik and a few Gorons and Hylians stood nearby, waiting for him to exit. The ring of fire circled overhead and a thin layer of white ash covered the ground, a film of it clinging to everything and turning the world to a grayscale.

"Link, time has grown short; the Great Dragon Volvagia has recently grown far stronger than ever before and within a few days time will create an earthquake strong enough to bring down the mountain. We must hurry before all of Hyrule is reduced to a burning wasteland." Sheik explained quickly. The Hylians were quickly going about and recovering as many of their launched arrows as they could while the Gorons selected the rocks with the sharpest edges for throwing.

"I'm supposed to be looking for the Sage of Fire…" Link started.

"Yes, and he's waiting inside the volcano, Darunia is the Sage of Fire!" Sheik explained hurriedly.

"Alright then, let's go!" Link replied. The Hylians were satisfied with the amount of arrows they had recovered and the Gorons had long since chosen the good rocks for throwing. The Gorons put the rocks in bomb bags at their sides and then began rolling down the mountain. Link, Sheik, and the Hylian host ran down behind them and within a short time they reached the stair and descended down until they reached the branch of three ways. This time they followed the path that went to the Goron city and they soon found themselves inside the main chamber of the city.

Link had only seen the place for a brief time as a child and was amazed by how it had changed. New tunnels had been roughly hewn out of the rock and old ones had been barricaded by great boulders. The number of Gorons was very obviously declined but easily five hundred Hylians were among them carrying rocks and adding them to barricades. Link looked around for some sign of Darunia but he was nowhere to be seen in the main chamber.

"Where is Darunia?" Link asked Sheik. Sheik shook her head and pointed over to a tunnel that emanated an angry red glow, Link could tell it would be very hot on the other side of that tunnel, too hot for him at any rate. He suddenly wished that back when he had fought Sophia he had taken her supplies, including a red tunic that would be very handy right about now. When he thought about it though it was foolish, it wouldn't have hardly fit him back then, it definitely wouldn't fit him as he was now.

"He's leading an attack on the Dodongos occupying the east entrance to the crater, they've been holding the bridge of Goro-Dar for many days, fifty soldiers and several dozen Gorons went with him." Sheik explained. Link looked around for a second before asking another question.

"Are there any red tunics lying around?" Link asked. Sheik looked up at a place labeled 'Equipping Area' and gave a person somewhere outside Link's sight a hand signal. She received a wave from someone near the place in response and then nodded a yes to Link's question.

"Yeah, they still have some" Sheik said. "You better hurry; I thought they'd be out by now."

Link looked for a quick way up but seeing none he used an alternative method of climbing. He pulled out the hookshot and used it on the wooden sign over the 'Equipping Area' and was pulled up immediately to the top floor. The Goron in the booth tipped backwards with a start and curled into a ball until he realized that it was just Link using an unusual device. He reached under the counter and pulled out a folded red tunic and handed it over.

"We don't have a hat like yours to match it, but the effect that a hat would have on the internal temperature is negligible." The Goron said. Just as the Goron finished speaking and Link was about to grab the tunic, there was a shout from down on the bottom floor.

"Make way! They're right behind us!" A Hylian soldier in a red tunic and plate armor shouted as he ran into the main chamber from the direction Sheik said Darunia had gone. More Hylians and a few Gorons exited through the gap, most of them wounded, and all of them fleeing in fear.

The Hylians and Gorons in the main chamber all ran to the door and formed a semi circle around it. The Gorons pulled out bombs and prepared to throw them and the Hylians drew swords and bows. A moment later a horde of Lizafos began pouring through the gap, swinging swords and breathing fire on the retreating Hylians. Link drew his sword and shield and leapt back down into the fray, immediately putting himself in the center of the Lizafos horde. That turned out to be a very good place to be because he ended up right in front of the bronze armored leader and proceeded to kill him.

The fight had been going in the favor of the Lizafos until Link showed up and killed their leader. The moment the commander was dead the Lizafos formation failed and they attempted to retreat back into the tunnels, only to be blocked by a host of Hylians with swords drawn who had jumped down from the above landing. The Lizafos horde was effectively surrounded and quickly destroyed.

Link kept count of his kills in his mind and when the skirmish was won he put his toll at nine including the leader. The Master Sword had given him far greater reach in combat than his opponents and the shield had given him the ability to block, something the Lizafos couldn't do with just their short swords.

"Are you Link!" Someone shouted from up above on the second level. Link looked up and saw a small Goron standing over him holding the red tunic from the 'Equipping Area'. Link nodded a yes and the Goron leapt down to meet him.

"That's so cool! I'm Link too, my daddy named me after you, did you see where he went to? Did he come back?" The Goron child asked.

"Who's your dad?" Link asked.

"Darunia, the big boss!" Link of the Gorons replied enthusiastically. Link looked around but could see no sign of Darunia, nor did he remember seeing him return through the tunnel before the attack. Link turned to the nearest Hylian who he recognized as having come from the tunnel.

"Did you see where Darunia went?" Link asked. The Hylian soldier's eyes immediately dropped to the floor and Link knew that the conversation wasn't going anywhere good.

"Darunia and six or seven Gorons got separated from us along with maybe five of our guys during the initial attack at the bridge, they had already crossed and were forced to retreat deeper into the tunnels. They might still be alive, but until we know, Sheik is in charge of both armies." The Hylian soldier replied. Link turned back to the Goron whose eyes had already begun welling up with tears; he tried to think of something to say that would make him feel better.

"Don't worry, your dad will be fine, he's the strongest Goron there ever was." Link replied, but he didn't even believe himself when he said it. The Goron continued crying and Link tried to think of something else to say.

"You know what, I'm going to go find your daddy and bring him back." Link said. The Goron looked up hopefully, he had grown up hearing stories about Link and now the legendary child who had become a man was making him a promise, he was inclined to believe it. The Goron Link lifted up the tunic from the Equipping Area and handed it over to Link.

"If you're going to do that… you're going to need this."


	26. The Temple of Fire

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 26: The Temple of Fire

Link stood in the gaping entryway to the volcano, the mysterious Sheik standing beside him. Originally they had planned to go down with a small host of Hylians and a few Gorons, but changed their mind when they saw how short the Goron village was on soldiers. Two hundred more Hylians were due to come up the mountain under cover of darkness that night but it would be foolish to leave the Goron city poorly defended while they waited for reinforcement. So just Link and Sheik would be descending in search of Darunia, Link preferred not having to worry about a large number of people anyhow, it was easier to only have one very skilled combatant along side him.

Lector had wanted to come as well but since he was the last commanding figure left in the area it would be foolish to have him go down as well, better to have him stay back in case there was a problem and they needed a general to command them.

They had packed relatively light for their trip into the volcano. Because of the magic spell on Link's pouch he was carrying most of the extra equipment that they were bringing with them. Four gallons of water in buckskin canteens and enough food and equipment to survive for half a week, a spare red tunic in case his or sheik's was severely damaged, and an extra quiver of arrows in his pouch so he was carrying sixty instead of thirty. He also had refilled his bomb bag so he now carried a full load of twenty bombs which was plenty for both of them.

Sheik had her assassin's dagger, a weapon that made Link uneasy because of what happened last time he trusted someone who had one of those. Since they were going into open combat she had also opted to take a longsword recently finished by one of the Goron smiths with a spell on it that would make it very difficult to melt. Her usual array of throwing knives was wrapped around her waist in a belt of a dozen and she wore a red tunic over her usual sheikah uniform. When they were both ready they met at the entrance to the depths of the volcano, then on silent agreement they both began their descent.

"Good luck Link! My daddy is counting on you!" Link of the Gorons shouted from up at the top as he and Sheik descended into the abyss. At first the tunnel was dark and Link began to miss having Navi's light to guide him in dark places. Sheik seemed to have an uncanny ability to see in the dark and she was almost constantly helping Link to avoid running into obstacles in their path. Still, a few times he managed to hit his head on stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Finally, fed up with his poor performance, Link drew The Master Sword and its blade glowed faintly in the dark, just enough that he could see where he was going. After twenty minutes of continual descent the tunnel began to brighten and while the tunics helped them withstand the rising heat, they didn't make it any easier to breathe the thick air. The walls of the tunnel began to glow red as they neared the crater and Link sheathed the sword, no longer needing its light.

"If you took off your tunic you'd be dead in under a minute. Something good to know." Sheik said. Link for a moment had a terrifying image in his mind of his burnt and charred corpse lying on the ground; he pushed the image from his mind and tried to think of something else. As they entered the crater they found themselves on a wide platform suspended hundreds of feet over a lake of fire. Black smoke rose in columns from two small cylinders of stone beneath them and the smoke crossed the platform in two places between them and the opposite side.

Link had imagined the crater would look a lot like the outside of the mountain, with red rock slopes and many boulders. the inside of the crater was more like a black pit of scorched sand with occasional outcrops connected by hastily constructed bridges, whether the bridges were made by Hylians, Gorons, or Monsters, Link could not tell.

"Don't breathe the smoke, I don't know what's in it and I don't intend to find out." Link said as they began to cross the platform. Sheik nodded in agreement and they both held their breath as the passed through the smoke columns. The smoke burned his eyes and Link squinted to keep the fumes out, a few moments later he stumbled over something and looked back to see what it was. A dead Hylian soldier with a Lizafo's sword halfway through his neck had fallen there during the battle his sword and shield lay there with him along with half a quiver of arrows and a broken bow.

"Take his sword and shield, put them in your pouch." Sheik ordered calmly. Link looked down at the corpse with uncertainty, sheik just pointed down at the weapons with her finger.

"We don't have enough weapons to arm all of the fighting men of Hyrule, what do you think he would want?" Sheik asked. Link nodded in agreement and took the sword and shield. They came across four other dead Hylians and a few discarded weapons and Link took them all. When they reached the end of the platform there were two doors, one going down to the left and the other went down to the right.

"The enemy came from the right path, splitting our forces in two, Darunia was trapped on the far side, outnumbered, he was forced to retreat deeper into the volcano." Sheik said. Link nodded and they went down the left path, Sheik's expert tracking skills leading the way. The new tunnel descended downward towards deeper parts of the mountain, and thankfully there were no side tunnels that Darunia and his force could have taken so they didn't need to worry too much about tracking.

Surprisingly, the area was completely devoid of monsters. Sheik's justification for this was that all of them had either gone to attack the Goron city and been killed there or had gone to follow Darunia, leaving the middle ground empty. Link accepted this explanation but still felt uneasy about the complete absence of enemies. They continued going downward towards the underworld for what seemed like hours before they reached a large circular chamber with walls of black glass. A small circle of moonlight was visible at the top, the day having faded to night during their descent, a reddish glow at the bottom signaling the presence of magma. A latticework of pathways had been hewn into the stone on the side of the tube and bridges crossed it in multiple places.

"This is a magma vent, during an eruption…" Sheik started.

"Yeah, I know, I was inside a different part of this volcano seven years ago. Where do you think the gorons went?" Link asked. Sheik looked up and down the corridor and then closed her eyes to think.

"That hole" Sheik said, pointing to a roughly arch shaped tunnel down and to their right on the side of the tube.

"Why there?" Link asked. Sheik pointed at shards of volcanic glass on the floor at their feet that looked like the walls of the corridor.

"All of the other pathways from this room were hewn by dragon claw or lizafo pick. That one was blasted recently by a bomb; it connects to an ancient corridor that leads to the temple of fire." Sheik said. Link looked down the steep slope of the tube that would end in fiery death if he slipped, and then carefully he and Sheik began to circle around the side of the tube along a narrow path towards the hole.

"How did the Gorons know that they would find a corridor if they blasted a hole in that wall, there aren't _that_ many tunnels in this mountain." Link asked. Sheik led the way through the blast hole and into an adjacent corridor that ran north to south with a slight downward slope to the south. A few lizafo swords lay on the ground, most of them broken in some way or another. Unlike the lava tube, this new tunnel had been made by hands. Its floor was of ancient granite blocks as were the walls, and the ceiling was carved into vaults out of the red rock of the mountain. At the southern end of the tunnel was a faint red light, Link almost mistook it for sunlight when he first saw it but then remembered that it was night and had to be the light of the liquid fire.

"The Gorons don't see the same way we do, they may be man-like, but they are adapted to the deep places, solid walls are not such an impediment to their vision as they are to us. It is a trait that we Sheikah can only wish for." Sheik replied. She knelt down and examined the swords without actually touching them and then stood and looked towards the light at the southern end of the tunnel.

"They went south; the way these swords slid when their wielders were killed suggests they were killed by a heavy impact while running south. There are tracks of at least sixty monsters pursuing them that way." Sheik explained, pointing south. Link followed her lead, not sure how she could possibly read tracks on volcanic glass and tell which direction a person was going by how their sword fell in death, but it was quickly apparent she was right when they came across a dead Goron on the side of the corridor, his bomb bag had been taken and six more Lizafos swords and a Hylians shield lay on the ground.

"One of the Hylians lost their shield here and was injured, but was not killed, this Goron was dead but the company endured and killed six of their pursuers." Sheik determined. Link picked up the shield and noted blood spatter on the back around the handle and arm strap. He put the shield in his pouch along with the other Hylian weapons he had found on the upper levels and then he and Sheik continued down the ancient hall. After a while they began to near the light and Link could make out that it was not a lake of fire as he had expected, but rather was a large room with huge stone gates that had been shattered off their hinges.

"The fire temple, to my knowledge, us and the men who went with Darunia are the only Hylians to have ever seen this place." Sheik stated as they entered the room. It was a massive place entirely made from the red rock of the mountain with fine carvings of ancient battles and eruptions of the mountain carved into the wall. Two statues flanked a large stair lined with pillars of fire that lit the entire room brightly. At the top of the stair was a massive door which stood open. It was hard to see through the haze in the room but four figures were visible standing in the doorway at the top of the stair. Link pulled out his bow and knocked an arrow on the string but didn't shoot; he wasn't going to until he was sure they were enemies. That moment came when he was half way up the stairs and one of them turned around, he saw a tail on the silhouette and that made it an enemy, no friendly race had tails. He shot it in the neck with his bow and as it tumbled down the stairs it was quite evidently a Lizafo. The three other Lizafos at the top of the stairs spun around and began charging towards Link and Sheik, but they were no match for the ranged weapons of the heavily armed duo, two more arrows from Link and a throwing knife from sheik was plenty to put them down.

Link knocked another arrow and Sheik retrieved her throwing knife as they proceeded to the top of the stairs. At the top was the site of another battle, all of the dead monsters had already dissolved into the blue fire but the number of their swords on the ground was a good gauge of how many had been killed. Two Gorons and a Hylian were dead leaving the number that could possibly be alive at three Hylians and Nine Gorons. Link took the sword and shield of the killed Hylian and the bomb bags of the slain Gorons and put them in his pouch to rearm the survivors when they encountered them.

Sheik continued to use her tracking skills and Link followed her lead as they passed through multiple chambers and racked up another seven kills. There was no further evidence of the Gorons or Hylians that Link could see aside from an occasional drop of blood from the wounded Hylian, but Sheik was obviously seeing something that Link was not because she was quickly and accurately picking the correct path without fail. Link eventually gave up trying to spot things and just let sheik do the tracking while he followed with his bow out incase they ran into enemies.

"Demons! How many must I reap before you leave us be!" A familiar voice shouted in the next room. Sheik stopped following tracks and sprinted just ahead of Link in the direction of the voice. The sounds of battle emanated from the doorway at the back of the room and when Sheik and Link reached it they found themselves on a platform with more than a dozen Lizafos and two Stalfos leading them. There was a chasm approximately twenty feet across that ended in a lava pit hundreds of feet below that separated them from another platform where Darunia, six other gorons, and three Hylians were making a stand against a horde of demons. The gorons were throwing bombs sparingly and it didn't take much reasoning to know that they were running out. One of the Hylians had a broken sword and another had a large slice on his shield arm and Link reasoned that the shield he had found in the corridor leading to the temple was his. The gorons were mainly using punches and brute strength to overcome their enemies to conserve bombs while the three Hylians were using a dwindling supply of arrows to fight at range.

Link shot the nearest enemy with the arrow he had on the string and then put the bow away and drew his sword and shield. Sheik threw the two knives she had in hand and hit the two stalfos that had been commanding the Lizafos. One of the stalfos was knocked off balance by the knife and fell off the edge of the platform and the other's head was knocked off its shoulders and took a tumble into the pit leaving the body swinging its sword blindly. The body of the stalfos killed two of its subordinates before stumbling over the edge and into the fiery pit below. Sheik drew her sword and dagger and together she and Link quickly neutralized the rest of the enemies on their platform. Once their side of the chasm was cleared Link pulled his bow back out and began shooting enemies on the other side while Sheik started throwing her remaining knives at them.

Darunia gave a battle cry and grabbed two Dodongos that had crawled out of a tunnel to his left and lifted them off the ground before slamming them together in the air and then throwing them over the side. The Hylians ran out of arrows and drew their swords in preparation for short range combat and were surprised to see that enemies were being felled by an archer on the other side of the chasm. After a minute more of fighting the enemies realized they were not making any progress and ceased their attacks, just in time because Sheik had run out of throwing knives and the gorons were completely out of bombs.

"Who is across the chasm? We owe you big time, Goro!" Darunia shouted. He squinted and looked directly at Link and his eyes widened when he saw him carrying The Master Sword in his left hand.

"It's me! Your sworn brother! Link." Link shouted back across the chasm. Darunia roared and beat his fists on his chest. A fire burned in his eyes and Link knew in that moment that there was no person in the world Darunia would have rather seen.

"You have grown a lot since I saw you before! And if I am not mistaken that sword you carry is none other than the legendary blade of evil's bane! Link, you have become such a great warrior!" Darunia shouted excitedly. Link reached into the pouch on his belt and pulled out the two bomb bags he had taken from the dead Gorons he had passed earlier.

"These are pretty much full; you'll need them if you get attacked again. How do we get around to your side?" Link asked. He threw the bags across and two of the gorons caught them and began distributing the bombs between their kind. Link proceeded to throw across three swords, two shields, and a quiver of arrows while he continued to talk to Darunia.

"The path we took was short, but it is far too over run for even a true hero like you to pass. We wanted to find the legendary hammer of the ancient Goron hero Gothorodon but now we are trapped and we don't have enough force to fight our way out of this spot. These Hylians have fought well but even the toughest of men need water, you wouldn't happen to have any?" Darunia asked. Link reached into his pouch and pulled out two of the one-gallon canteens they had taken from the Goron city and threw them across the chasm, leaving him and Sheik with two for themselves. The Hylians quickly began to share the canteens of water that had been passed across and rearm with the new weapons. The monster corpses had dissolved into blue flames leaving the weapons that had killed them behind. The Hylians on the other side managed to recover more than thirty arrows and five of sheik's knives which they threw back across to her. Another of her knives that hadn't fallen over the side when she hit the stalfos made six of twelve that had not gone down into the lake of fire below.

While the coast was clear the gorons got to work piling up loose stone over the entrances to the platform and fortifying their location at the base of the massive door. Link looked up at the great door and wondered what was on the other side. As if reading his thoughts, Darunia spoke.

"If we are too outnumbered and are about to be overrun, we will choose to attempt to battle Volvagia in her lair on the other side of this door. Without the Megaton Hammer it is almost hopeless that we should try and defeat her, but it will be a better cause to die for than defending this useless ground." Darunia said. The gorons finished building the makeshift barricades and had done as good of a job as they thought was possible, they had done a good job and it was evident that the makeshift structures would withstand a moderate amount of force

"Go, find Gothorodons Hammer! If I no longer can wield it when you return than you shall be worthy of carrying our legendary weapon. Link! True brother and hero of the gorons!" Darunia shouted. Link slammed his closed fist into his chest three times in the Goron fashion and Darunia returned the gesture before he and Sheik ran down into the dark tunnel to their left. The heat felt less oppressive down there and Link wondered if it was just the magic of the tunic or if it actually was a survivable temperature.

"I have no way of tracking a treasure that's thousands of years old, but if I were someone trying to defend something I'd put it in the deepest part of the temple, so down it is." Sheik said. Her instincts and senses had been right so far so Link wasn't about to question them now.

They kept going for hours, there seemed to be no end to how far down the temple could go. Every time they thought they had reached the bottom they would find another stairway or passage that descended deeper into the bowels of the mountain. Even with Saria's magic medallion giving him energy, Link hadn't actually gotten rest since the night he got the hookshot. He had passed out after his fight with Gannondorf's phantom but that hadn't been rest, that was just being beaten to a pulp until he collapsed.

"We don't know how much further down this temple goes; honestly I believe it to be a very long way. We rest here and recover our strength." Sheik said. They had stopped in a room that was unlit with a high ceiling and only two doors, one in and one out. Sheik walked to the two entryways and mumbled words in ancient Hylians and a barrier that seemed like fog formed over the entrances.

"Any monsters like we have encountered her so far will not pass through that fog, water vapor has been collecting in this room for thousands of years and has formed a cooling layer under the tiles, the temperature in here is habitable by Hylian standards. And speaking of water, could you give me some? Sheik asked. Link took a seat leaning against the wall and then pulled out one of the canteens and handed it to her. She turned her back before pulling down the front of her mask and taking a long drink of the water, she adjusted her mask again before turning back to face Link and handing him back the canteen. Link took a drink from it as well and then replaced it in his pouch. After a few moments Link lay down on his side and pulled his rolled up green tunic out of his pouch to use as a pillow. He undid his sword bandolier and laid his sword and shield along side him and then began trying to sleep.

"That's never going to work, you can take your armor off, I don't mind." Sheik said. Link adjusted and tried to get comfortable, but she was right, the chainmail made it almost impossible to get any kind of rest. Sheik quickly walked over and grabbed Link by the collar and hauled him to his feet and violently slammed him against the wall.

"Listen kid, I've been keeping track of you, I know you haven't slept in days. You might think you're being a gentleman right now, but tomorrow you're going to be covering my back and if you don't get as much rest as is possible in this shithole and I end up getting injured or killed because of it, I'll be a lot more pissed off. So do whatever the hell it takes to get comfortable, I don't care. If you don't want me to see you naked then fine, I'll backtrack our path a few minutes and make sure nobody followed us while you take that shit off. I was going to do that at some point anyways." Sheik said. She released Link from her grasp and then turned and walked back over to the tunnel in the direction they had come from a few minutes before. Link waited until her footsteps had faded and then quickly removed his red tunic, chainmail, gambeson, boots, and underclothes. He breathed deeply the musty air of the room and tried to use the powers of the Triforce of courage to sense the presence of the Hammer in the temple. After a full minute of unsuccessfully trying to wield his senses, he pulled out a spare set of pants and a shirt from his pouch and put them on. Just as he finished buttoning the shirt, Sheik's voice nearly made him jump out of his skin.

"You have nice shoulders… among other things." Sheik stated in a plain voice from directly behind him. Link spun around, stumbled, and fell to the floor.

"How the hell did you get back in, I had both doors in my sight… how long were you standing there?" Link asked. Sheik's face didn't show because of the mask but Link was sure she was smiling when she spoke.

"Long enough. I've been running military training in Kakariko for years, I've seen my fair share of naked people, the only reason I came back was because I found a secret passage that went above the room and I had to hex it like the other doors. Otherwise a monster could have snuck up on you while you were changing" Sheik stated. Link was sure they had the same mental image in that moment of a giggling lizafo descending from the ceiling while he was getting changed. Sheik coughed to disguise a laugh and then continued speaking.

"So, now that all of that is out of the way, could you help me with my boots?" Sheik asked. They sat down leaning against the wall and Link began untying the left one while Sheik got to work on the right. Despite their simple appearance they were actually quite difficult to remove, though the tight fit probably made running very easy. A scar was visible on her left ankle and Link asked about it.

"Castle Town, 437 days ago, stab wound. I have a lot like that, help me with my vest and I'll show you more." Sheik said. Link circled around behind her and untied the back of her vest and spotted one on her neck.

"Same battle, grazing wound, arrow" Sheik stated. She went down a list of scars and how she had gotten them as Link helped her get remove layers of armor he didn't even know she had been wearing. At first Link had thought her to be very muscular but after removing a steel breast and back plate he found that she was actually quite thin.

"See, if you don't think about it, what you did wasn't all that bad now was it?" Sheik said, standing up in a completely different set of clothes. Link had been so focused on the scars he hadn't even realized he had helped her strip almost completely and change into a new set of clothes. Only her gloves and her mask hadn't changed.

"I didn't even realize… I'm sorry." Link replied, Sheik just laughed and lay down next to the wall, using her outer leather vest as a cushion.

"Don't be, you aren't like other people, you didn't notice my body, only the wounds it carried. Your heart is pure, don't ever lose that, it is a rare gift." Sheik said. Link looked at her mask and gloves and tried to imagine what her hands and face looked like beneath.

"Why do you wear the mask… are there scars on your face you don't want people to see?" Link asked. Sheik thought about this question for a moment.

"There are no scars you have not already seen. I wear the mask because other people have scars, not outside but on the inside, scars that would only become worse if I were to remove the mask and reveal the truth of my identity to the world." Sheik replied. Link lay down at his spot near the wall and made sure his sword was within an arms reach. He tried to imagine who sheik could possibly be that would make the situation worse if people knew about it. For the moment he was blank on ideas, he didn't know enough about Hyrule anyhow to figure out that kind of thing.

"You don't trust me?" Link asked. Sheik shook her head 'no'.

"It's a secret to everybody."

"Even me?"

"Especially you, now sleep." Sheik ordered. Link didn't think he'd be able to fall asleep on command like that but surprisingly before he even realized what was going on he found himself drifting off into the netherworld of dreams, his first rest in a long while, and for a long time to come.


	27. Gothorodon's Hammer

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 27: Gothorodon's Hammer

Link was awakened by a soft kick in the leg, his eyes snapped open and he looked up to see sheik already in full armor standing over him with his chainmail hauberk in one hand and his red tunic and boots in the other.

"How long did I sleep?" Link asked. Sheik thought about this for a second before replying.

"Probably six or seven hours, its hard to tell time down here, I would have let you sleep longer but something tried to get through my barriers, it almost succeeded." Sheik said, she pointed over at the strange mist that her magic had put over the doors, and Link could see what looked like cracks in a pane of glass running through it, slowly repairing themselves. Link quickly put on his clothing and armor and strapped on his sword bandolier before following Sheik through the path that led deeper into the volcano.

Almost immediately upon dispelling Sheik's magic barriers and exiting the safe room, Link felt an ominous presence that was all too familiar. He drew his sword and shield and Sheik on instinct pulled out her weapon as well.

"What is it, I don't see or hear any enemies." Sheik stated, holding her longsword aloft just in case they were set upon by attackers. Link looked around but he too could not see anything, but he knew the presence he sensed.

"An enemy I encountered in the Temple of the Forest gave me this same feeling. It was a demon of shadow that could mimic my physical appearance." Link said. Sheik's grip on her sword tightened as they proceeded into the next room. They were in a large circular chamber with a treasure chest on the far side and a pit of lava in the center.

"Gothorodon's hammer must be inside that chest, I can't sense the presence of any Goron magic beyond this room." Sheik said. Link took one step into the room and instantly sensed a massive amount of dark energy in the room. Link raised his sword and shield and a shadow began to form on the ground in front of him as he prepared for battle.

"Remember me? I must say our last meeting was disappointing, I hadn't reached my full power, and I still have not, but now that I'm a bit more powerful I think we can have some more fun before I kill you and your masked friend." Link's voice rang through the chamber, but it had not come from him. The shadow began to take human form and Link slashed down at it with his sword. What happened next was difficult to explain. The shadow flattened against the ground and the sword rang against the stone of the cavern floor, then Link heard a noise above him and barely managed to roll aside as the shadow fell from the ceiling and lashed out with its own sword, mimicking the strike that Link had just used. Sheik struck with her own sword but it was turned away by Shadow Link's shield. Link and Sheik regrouped and faced the shadow with their swords pointed at him. His red eyes glowed evily as he contemplated a plan of attack, then without warning he screamed something in ancient Hylian and dodged backwards and Sheik and Link lunged at him.

Sheik was the first one to notice a hissing noise behind them as something else appeared, summoned by the curse the shadow had just uttered. Link spun around while Sheik continued to keep the shadow at bay and found himself faced with one of the strangest looking monsters he had ever seen. Its legs and arms were extremely overlong for its body and rather than having feet and hands it had appendages that were bladed like swords. Rather than having a head and body like most monsters and creatures would, it had a body with a face on it which was roughly spherical in shape with a skirt of fire beneath it and a cone shaped hat of the same mysterious fire on its head.

It didn't help that there was more than one of these new monsters, three of them had appeared in the room, one in red flames was the closest to Link, and two others, one in blue fire and one in green had appeared on the other side of the circular room and would have to circle around to get to Link and Sheik.

"Navi, what's its weakness?" Link asked. He felt like smacking himself in the face the moment he uttered those words because Navi wasn't there anymore. Already he was beginning to sorely miss having her guidance. The nearest flare dancer began to make a skating motion towards him and his first reaction was to swing his sword as hard as he could at the legs to try and knock it down. The Master Sword passed right through the columns of fire that were the monster's legs without even harming it and the creature did a pirouette, its bladed arms extending outward and slashing at Link. He was hit three times, all along the right arm behind his shield. Two cut through the sleeve of the red tunic and then bounced off the chainmail beneath it, bruising him but causing no severe damage. The third hit below the area guarded by the chainmail and slashed open his arm, leaving a long cut that wasn't very deep but bled profusely. Link jumped back and a fourth and fifth blow were deflected by his shield. He tried to come up with some other way to fight the flare dancer aside from using his sword.

Meanwhile, Sheik was dealing with Shadow Link to the best of her abilities. She was very skilled with a sword and even more so with her deadly throwing knives, but her advantage usually lay in concealment and ambush. Sheik was fighting a losing battle and had already almost been hit several times, in desperation she reached in her pouch and threw a deku nut on the ground, using the momentary confusion to teleport behind Shadow Link.

"Confusion and Darkness, those are good strategies. I should know, I invented them!" Shadow Link shouted as he spun around in a wide arc, the tip of his sword leaving a shallow cut in Sheik's leg just below the knee. Sheik fell and Shadow Link kicked her sword out of her hand before she could use it against him. He pressed the point of his sword against her neck and a dark grin crossed his face as he did. He grabbed her roughly by the throat and pulled her to her feet, holding her in a headlock with his sword against her neck.

"I'm going to let you watch your hero die, and then I'm going to let you despair before I end you as well." Shadow Link laughed as he tightened his grip on Sheik's neck and pressed his sword harder against the front of her throat.

Link in the mean time was in trouble, finding his sword useless against the flare dancers he had sheathed it and was trying every weapon in his arsenal to defeat them. He had already tried his bow, and his hookshot, and Din's Fire would obviously be useless. His last good weapon was bombs, he couldn't imagine the fire being an effective weapon, but the force of the explosion could probably do some damage. Link pulled out a bomb and pulled off the cap on the end of the fuse, igniting it. He threw the bomb at the flare dancers as they charged for another attack.

In the somewhat enclosed space, the blast was deafening. Many things happened at once when the bomb went off. The first and most obvious was that the three flare dancers were sent flying backwards and their limbs seemed to disappear, leaving just the bodies running around on stumpy legs and feet with a tiny head protruding from the top. The second and less obvious was Sheik plunging a knife into her unwatching captor's back, temporarily immobilizing him in surprise and pain. The knife disintegrated since no mortal blade could harm the shadow, but the effect was enough for Sheik to break free of its grip and retreat towards Link, snatching the longsword off the floor as she ran.

Link slashed downwards at the body of the red flare dancer and destroyed it with a single blow while the other two ran away, Sheik threw a knife at the blue one and destroyed it too and the third one was killed when Link drew his bow and launched an arrow into its back. Shadow Link charged but by the time he reached Sheik and Link they were ready for him and fought back. The battle was somewhat even until sheik was hit in the forehead with the pommel of Shadow Link's sword and knocked backward before thudding to the ground, dazed and confused. Link was distracted for a moment by Sheik being hit and a well placed kick knocked him flat.

Shadow Link stood over him and raised his sword to deliver a vanquishing blow and Link lifted his shield to defend himself. Surprisingly, the blow never came, only the sound of something cracking against the wall to his right. Link looked over and saw a broken arrow with a silver tip hit the floor to his right and without hesitation leapt to his feet and slashed at the shadow. But before his sword reached him, Shadow Link disappeared into thin air. Link picked up the arrow and inspected it, the head was not made in the Hylian fashion of being shaped like a diamond, but rather had a claw-like appearance, Link picked it up and noted it was coated in a shadowy black substance that he assumed was from when it had passed through Shadow Link.

"You got lucky this time hero, next time you will not. Beware." Shadow Link's voice rang through the chamber. Link sheathed his sword and ran over to Sheik to make sure she was ok. Getting hit in the head with a pommel could be lethal but to his surprise she was already getting up despite a trickle of blood rolling down from under her mask on her forehead.

"You're hurt" Link stated, Sheik ignored him and walked right past to the arrow that had driven away Shadow Link, the strange black substance that appeared like fog clinging to it had already begun to fade but Sheik wasn't interested in that, she was interested in the actual history of the arrow.

"This arrow is of Gerudo design, and it must have been fired from one of their bows, it is too short to use with a Hylian longbow." Sheik stated. She walked over to the place where it had chipped into the stone of the wall and then placed the tip of the arrow in the notch to try and trace its trajectory. She spotted a hole in the ceiling of the room that went up to the floor above and then handed the arrow over to Link and told him to keep it.

"The head of that arrow is silver; it has the power to dispel monsters of any shape and size. Silver Arrows are not very easy to come across these days. If you only pull your bow to half draw you can use this one." Sheik stated. Link put the shorter arrow in the bottom of the quiver in his pouch and then walked towards the chest at the back of the room that they had spotted when they entered.

The chest was very ornate but its surroundings were surprisingly plain, Link had expected it to be in some sort of shrine considering how ancient and sacred its contents were supposed to be. Link wasn't about to complain though as he approached the chest and began to examine the lock attached to it.

_None but the Hero of the Gorons shall open this chest_

_Present proof of courage and the hammer will open the way_

Link tried to think of what would be proof of courage, he tried drawing The Master Sword and pressing it against the lock but it had no effect. When he spotted the Triforce insignia on the lid of the chest he tried playing the song of time and the song of the royal family on his ocarina but neither of those had any effect either.

"The lower right triangle of the Triforce on this inscription is made of different metal, it is slightly brighter in shade and color." Sheik stated. Link pressed his hand against it and felt a strange feeling course through his body.

"Open for the Triforce of Courage" Link commanded, the mark on the back of Link's hand glowed bright gold and there was a clicking sound from within and the lid sprung open as it had been waiting for him all along. Inside lay a massive hammer that Link began to wonder if he'd even be able to lift. It looked like a weapon made for a Goron and based on appearances it must have weighed more than sixty pounds. But to his surprise, when Link knelt down and tried to pick it up, he almost fell backwards because it was actually so light that he had put too much force behind it when trying to pick it up.

"What, is it heavy?" Sheik asked when Link stumbled backwards with it.

"No, its light, impossibly light" Link replied. He looked around for something to test it on and spotted a circle on the wall behind the chest with an insignia that looked like a hammer in the center. He walked over to it and swung the hammer with all the force he could put behind it. The hammer's speed was impossible but its impact was like that of a hammer of full weight.

There was a loud crunching noise as the hammer hit the wall and the entire façade collapsed, leaving a hole behind it large enough for Sheik and Link to walk through. Behind the fake wall segment that Link had just smashed was a stairway that spiraled upwards like a tower with windows lining the sides, through which a reddish glow lit the passage. Link entered in the lead, putting the hammer in his pouch and climbing with his hands free. There wasn't any sign of monsters in the stairwell and the windows were too narrow for any monster Link had yet seen to fit through.

Link and Sheik climbed for a long time without any further hostile contact, and the whole way Sheik was musing over how a Gerudo arrow came to be so deep in the tunnels of Death Mountain, completely on the wrong side of Hyrule. Several times during the climb Sheik asked for Link to give her the arrow to the point where he just gave up putting it back in the quiver and let her hold onto it during their long ascent, which was surprisingly free of monsters all the way to the top.

When they reached the top after uncounted hours of climbing, there was a great door of solid stone painted red with the symbol of the gorons inscribed on either side. Link as a precaution drew his sword before opening the door, and was glad he did because the moment it was open they found themselves in a large chamber with a Lizafos practically standing on the threshold. It had its back to them and Link cut it down as it began to turn to figure out who had opened the door.

Link dodged aside a moment later as a black crossbow bolt flew past his head and Sheik got separated from him when she dodged the opposite direction. Sheik dodged two bolts and then caught a third one by the shaft with her right hand while pulling out a throwing knife with her left. Sheik threw the knife and a Moblin archer fell from one of the tiers of the room with a knife protruding from its throat. Link in the meantime cut down two more Lizafos that were visible on the ground level and then sheathed his sword and pulled out his shield and bow. He jammed the pointy base of the shield into the volcanic sand of the floor and knocked an arrow on his bowstring and began to shoot back using the shield for cover. The Moblins had originally been given the advantage of surprise but their crossbows took far too long to reload to effectively win a ranged battle after the first shot. Sheik and Link pumped out arrows and throwing knives as quickly as their hands could move while the Moblins fumbled with their unwieldy crossbows. Four more knives from Sheik and half a dozen arrows from Link neutralized the threat.

"This doesn't explain the Gerudo arrow, the Moblins use crossbows firing short iron bolts, and the arrow saved us, the wielder was on our side." Sheik explained. A moment later there was a whistling sound behind them followed by a thud, they spun and saw that a Moblin armed with a crossbow on a previously unseen tier had been felled by an arrow, and Link didn't need to check to know what kind of arrow it would be.

"Gerudo archer, short bow, same as before. I would take bets on it being the same one, but who is she, and where did she shoot from?" Sheik mused. Link wasn't one to wait in inaction though, he looked up at the tiers carved into the walls of the room and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"To the archer who has been following us, who are you? You play the part of a friend but the type of your arrows says otherwise, we swear we will not attack!" Link shouted. He lowered his bow and put it away in his pouch and held his hands out away from his body to show that he didn't have any weapons drawn. There was a scuffling sound and what appeared to be a section of wall on one of the tiers moved. It took Link a moment to realize what had happened but when he did he was truly impressed.

What had appeared to be part of the wall was actually a person carrying a bow painted head to toe with red and black paint so she would appear as part of the rock wall behind her. Link actually couldn't even make out enough human details to tell whether or not the person was female, and just made the assumption based on the Gerudo arrows.

The Gerudo leapt from the high tier where she had been standing with her bow and shouted something in ancient Gerudi before she hit the floor, a spell that made it as if she had landed on some invisible cushion. That was the only explanation because she had leapt from an incredible height of over seventy feet, enough to kill any unaided person. Even not standing against the wall Link had a hard time focusing on the features of the person, as if his eyes almost didn't want to believe they were seeing anything but a rock.

"There is not much time Link, I have been following you since you battled Gannondorf's Phantom." She said. Link recognized the voice but wasn't sure from where. It was only when she muttered another spell and her camouflage dissolved that he realized who she really was. Her false image dissolved into a red tunic and pale skin with dark red hair that made her look like any normal Hylian, but she was quite easily one of the last people on the earth that Link wanted to see.

"Sophia." Link grimaced as her façade faded away revealing her true identity. Link reached back and grabbed the handle to his sword but Sophia made no move for her weapons and this alone was enough to make Link reconsider his chosen action.

"I'm not here to fight you Link. After Gannondorf learned of my failure he cursed me to bear this disguise forever. It is powerful magic and I doubt that even his death would break the curse. Gannondorf betrayed me just as he forced me to betray you. I have to give you a warning about what lies ahead; you are drawing very near to the chamber that houses Volvagia. Even with the legendary weapon of the Goron hero, a Hylian such as you could not possibly hope to win that battle, the ancient dragon is far to powerful and has been mutated by Gannondorf's magic, even with the full might of the Hylians and Gorons that dragon would be nearly impossible to defeat." Sophia said. Link's hand drifted away from his sword and Sophia continued to speak.

"However, there is an ancient secret of this mountain that could be the dragons bane. Volvagia gets its energy from the heat and power of the volcano itself, the energy that occurs naturally around the many fiery lakes within this mountain. Millions of years ago the entire world was beneath an ocean before the Goddesses gave it form. Great caverns full of water from that time still exist throughout this mountain and unleashing them could quench the fires enough to weaken Volvagia's power, possibly enough that you could destroy her." Sophia said. Link turned to Sheik for confirmation.

"Yes… Those caverns have been sealed for many years but there were accounts of them in the Hylian royal library before it was burned during the siege of castle town." Sheik confirmed.

"Do you know where they are?" Link asked both of them at once. Both shook their heads 'no'.

"There was supposedly an ancient entrance on the outside of the mountain but we wouldn't have time to look for it, Darunia would know where the walls of the caverns are thin in connection to this temple, his knowledge of this mountain is unparalleled." Sheik stated. Link immediately knew what their next course of action was to be. He looked across the chamber to a set of doors on the far side which he believed led to the tunnels that connected to the platform where they had seen Darunia the previous day, if they were lucky he would still be nearby there, he had been setting it up to defend for a prolonged time but Link wasn't sure if they would have been able to hold out for that long against an entire army of monsters, especially with their supply of weapons being as low as it was.

"I'll be seeing you around, if you wouldn't mind I'd like my arrow back, I only have three silver ones." Sophia said. Sheik handed over the arrow that they had recovered and Sophia picked up her arrow where the Moblin she had killed had dissolved into blue fire. Sophia replaced the arrows in her quiver and then without another word just nodded to Link and then leapt over seventy feet into the air using her magic, disappearing into a small corridor connected to one of the tiers. Link watched her leave and then on wordless agreement he and Sheik ran to the doors at the end of the chamber with increased haste. Finding Darunia had suddenly become far more important than before, and caution was thrown to the wind as they passed through the doors and ran into a freshly hewn tunnel, no monsters were in sight but they could hear the sounds of battle coming from up ahead. Link drew The Master Sword with his left hand and Gothorodon's hammer with his right. Sheik pulled out a pair of throwing knives out of the four she had left and prepared for combat as well.

The sounds of battle grew louder as Link and Sheik approached the end of the tunnel where they assumed they would find Darunia and the monsters he was battling. Suddenly monsters appeared from side tunnels on either side and the duo cut them down mercilessly, with a single swipe of the hammer Link hit four Lizafos and they flew backwards at high speed into a whole row of them that were knocked flat, only to be brutally destroyed by a slice from The Master Sword.

"We cannot hold them any more, blow the tunnels, then we enter the dragons lair where they cannot follow!" Darunia's voice echoed through the tunnel.

"No! Wait!" Link shouted, but before the words even left his mouth he knew there was no way that Darunia could hear him. A moment later there was a series of detonations and Sheik yanked Link backwards by the belt with surprising force as the tunnel above where he had been standing collapsed. Link got back to his feet and coughed on the acrid smoke and dust left in the air by the explosions.

"We have to get through, if we don't we'll suffocate." Link coughed as monsters appeared behind them. They were trapped between a wall of boulders on one side and an army of monsters on the other. Link tossed Sheik his bomb bag and she began using it to decimate the forces charging at their back while Link began pounding on the wall of rock with Gothorodon's hammer. In ancient times the hammer had carved out every hall of the Fire Temple, now it was being used once again to forge a path deep within the mountain of fire. Link put away his sword and with two hands swung the hammer with as much force as he could muster and the rock gave way before him as if they were paper. His vision began to dim as he was slowly choked by the poisonous fumes and gasses that had long been trapped within the rocks that had fallen from the ceiling. Just as he began to think that they would never make it through, the rocks exploded outward before him and bright light flowed into the tunnel, Link and Sheik charged out onto the platform and breathed the better air deeply. Darunia and his host were already gone, having disappeared through the massive doors into the dragon's lair. Link and Sheik only spent a moment to breathe good air before charging into the room behind him with their weapons drawn. Link carried the hammer in two hands while Sheik held the Hylian Longsword in one hand and a knife in the other. Together they passed through the massive stone gates into a long corridor beyond and the doors closed behind them. The corridor was brightly lit by columns of lava pouring down from the ceiling into holes in the floor and Link could feel the suffocating heat even with the red tunic protecting him. At the far side was a second set of identical doors with ancient inscriptions upon them.

The sound of explosions and battle could be heard on the other side accompanied by a roaring noise that was likely that of the dragon Volvagia. Link gripped the hammer tightly in his hands and took a deep breath before sprinting for the far door, which rather than opening he smashed down with a swipe of Gothorodon's hammer. He leapt high into the air as he passed the threshold of the door with the hammer held over his head in an attacking stance and unleashed a battle cry.

"Know fear, cretin! The heroes of Hyrule have come!" Link shouted. He slammed the hammer into the ground as he landed and the resulting boom was so loud it could be heard all across the land of Hyrule. It was in that moment, when Link and Sheik entered the battle, that the world knew that the spirit of Gothorodon yet lived.

The battle for the fate of Death Mountain had begun.


	28. Quenching the Flame

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 28: Quenching the Flame

The grand entrance Link had just made into the battle seemed to have temporarily stopped it, distracting both parties from what was happening. Behind Link on the side of the door he had smashed down was Darunia, two surviving Gorons, and two surviving Hylians lined up facing the dragon, the gorons were nearly out of bombs and the Hylians were in a similar situation with arrows. All of them except Darunia were in some way or another severely injured, Darunia was covered with wounds himself but none of them seemed to be in any way hampering his ability to fight.

Volvagia on the other hand was a massive serpentine monster that appeared to be completely unharmed by whatever attacks Darunia and his host had thus far used against her, only scratches on its bony armor made it evident that it had battled at all. As it was, the dragon had just turned towards Darunia and was flying straight towards him, its mouth glowing brightly with fire as it prepared to send a column of fire down upon him, but Darunia did not flinch or cower, instead he actually braced his feet against the floor and charged at the dragon as it descended upon him. What happened next was one of the most incredible things Link had ever seen. As the dragon attacked, Darunia leapt into the air and punched in the direction of the dragon, a pillar of flame emitted from the dragon's mouth and a ball of white fire formed around Darunia's fist. The two flames collided and then the wielders were engulfed in a whirlwind of fire so brilliant that Link could hardly see through it. Darunia and Volvagia battled within the fireball so hot that Link couldn't even approach it, even with his red tunic on. Whenever they got a chance where they saw the dragon separate from Darunia, the gorons would bomb it and the Hylians would hit it with a hail of arrows.

For nearly fifteen seconds the battle continued in this manner with Darunia and Volvagia battling within their firestorm before Link got an idea, he couldn't directly intervene through the heat, but he could provide assistance in another way. Link reared back and then threw the hammer with all of his might at the conflagration, it spiraled through the air and for a devastating moment Link wondered what would happen if Darunia didn't catch it and it hit him instead of the dragon. That question was answered when a stone hand protruded from the blazes of hell and caught the hammer. The sound of the dragon unleashing flame and Darunia smashing it with the hammer was intense and lasted for several moments until Darunia and Volvagia simultaneously landed good hits. Volvagia flew backwards and slammed into the back wall of the chamber while Darunia skidded backward across the floor, his feet leaving glowing hot trails of fire across the floor. Darunia was so hot from the firestorm that his rocky skin glowed brilliant red. The fire around his fists dimmed and he turned to look at Link.

"We battle together, as brothers! For Hyrule and the Gorons!" Darunia shouted. Link drew the Master Sword and the Hylian shield and together he and Darunia charged at the dragon which still hadn't risen from the floor. As they drew near though, the snakelike eyes of the dragon glowed brightly and a mighty wall of flame blew outwards from it, Link crouched behind his shield and felt the waves of heat wash over him as the inferno was deflected by the ancient enchantments of the thunder dragon. The majority of the attack was turned aside by the shield but the shield wasn't wide or tall enough to protect his entire body and he felt the outside of his arms and the top of his head getting burned through the red tunic's magic. Without the magic of the tunic the flames would have incinerated him completely.

While Volvagia was distracted by Link, Darunia circled around the side and attacked with the hammer of his ancestor. The dragon dodged aside but Darunia managed to catch it on the tail with a good blow and nearly knocked it out of the air. The injury the hammer gave the dragon was relatively weak but the dragon had not known injury for as long as it had lived, and it remembered a long time ago when it had been banished by that same weapon. The dragon flew up to the ceiling and Sheik threw her remaining knives aiming for its eyes. Of her four remaining knives two missed and one struck the dragon's mouth knocking loose a tooth, the fourth struck where she had aimed it and Volvagia reared back, roaring in rage and pain as a small knife entered its right eye.

Volvagia began slamming its tail against the ceiling of the chamber and knocked loose huge boulders that began to drop onto the platform. The Hylians and Gorons in the room struggled to dodge all of the boulders falling around but even the fastest Hylian couldn't keep up with it. One by one those in the room were crushed by boulders until finally Link, Darunia, and Sheik were the only ones left.

"The dragon is too strong, we need a better attack!" Darunia shouted. He held the dragon at bay while Link and Sheik began to formulate a plan.

"Darunia can see through walls, if he can penetrate a water cavern the room will cool down and give us an advantage." Link shouted. Sheik nodded and passed the message on to Darunia. Darunia gave Link the hammer and Link held it in his left hand in place of his sword and carried his shield in his right. Volvagia had lost all semblance of strategy and was attacking madly whoever carried the weapon. Link lifted his shield as Volvagia breathed fire at him again and charged forward with the hammer, the shield once again protected him from the flames and then he leapt into the air so he was above the flames and swung the hammer down at Volvagia's head. He scored a good hit on the dragon and the bony armor plate on its head cracked, a few more hits like that would do it but he was sure that the dragon would come up with a counter strategy so it wouldn't work again.

While Link had been battling with the dragon Darunia had been scanning the walls of the chamber with his eyes and trying to figure out where the water caverns were. There weren't any directly in line with the chamber so Darunia began to use an alternate method of detection. He curled into a ball and began rolling at high speed in a circle around the chamber and when he had built up enough speed he transferred to the wall and something incredible happened, the rocky scales on his back morphed into spikes and dug into the stone of the wall and he struck the wall with his fist every time he rotated. Every time his fist hit the wall it made a loud thudding noise and when the composition of the wall and the rock behind it changed, so did the sound made by his fist hitting it. He continued doing this until he had scanned every wall of the chamber. He ran over to a section where the wall had sounded different and then signaled Sheik.

"I need the hammer and a distraction!" Darunia shouted. Sheik signaled to Link who was locked in fierce combat with the dragon and Link got the message. Link ran at the dragon and leapt at its head and it dodged aside, but he managed to catch a hold of its tail and began climbing up its back. He threw the hammer to Darunia as he climbed and drew his sword to replace it.

Volvagia was so distracted by trying to shake loose Link that he didn't realize that it was now Darunia who carried the hammer. Link found a gap in the dragon's armor and began jamming his sword into it to further distract the monster while Darunia caught the hammer and began pounding on the wall with it. The wall began to collapse and Darunia hewed a tunnel through the rock. The sound of Darunia's hammering filled the chamber and even Volvagia began to catch on to what was happening. Before the dragon could do anything about it though, there was a rushing noise and Darunia charged out of his tunnel followed by a torrential flood of water. The water filled the floor of the room and Darunia rolled up the wall to a small outcropping to escape it. Link was still on the dragon's back but lost his focus and fell, splashing into the water that was already several feet deep. He stood up and the freezing water was already up to mid-chest.

The water filtered down into cracks in the floor and flowed down into the lava pits that circled the room steam billowed up and the chamber Volvagia thrashed wildly as the temperature in the room dropped and the air filled with steam, it unleashed a torrent of flame from its mouth to try and heat up the area, but it was useless against the freezing water which continued to pour into the room through Darunia's tunnel. Sheik ran up into the main tunnel that connected Volvagia's chamber to the rest of the temple and opened the main doors. The water level continued to rise and then flowed out the doors to the room and began to cool down the rest of the dungeon as well, further weakening the dragon's power.

Link on the other hand was in trouble, his armor, shield, and sword were weighing him down and he could hardly manage to stay afloat. The freezing water felt like knives stabbing into him and the red tunic suddenly began working against him as it offered no protection against the cold. Just as Link began to lose his fight with gravity, something flashed past his head and burrowed into the far wall of the chamber, behind it was a long thick rope and the other end was tied a large rock from the doors Link had smashed with the hammer upon originally entering the chamber. Sophia stood next to it with her bow in hand and Link grabbed onto the rope to stay above the dark waters that were filling up the dungeon.

Darunia had made it up to a ledge near the top of the room but he didn't stay there for long, he let out a battle cry and leapt from his platform, landing on Volvagia's head and slamming his hammer against the dragon as many times as he could with all of the strength he could muster. The dragon flailed around several times before falling into the water with Darunia still on its back. The water around them boiled as they battled and flames licked up from the surface as if the water itself was burning.

Volvagia was severely injured and many sections of her bone armor had broken loose, but she managed to shake off Darunia who fell into the water. Darunia managed to escape the water again by rolling up the wall but was very obviously being exhausted by it. The dragon shifted its attention to Sheik once Darunia was shaken off and flew straight at her, stretching out its claws to slice her to ribbons. Sheik leapt into the air and threw a smoke bomb to disguise her movements, even with her incredible speed the talons caught her leg and tore through her flesh. She cried out and fell into the shallow water that filled the corridor, blood seeping from the wound on her leg and staining the water around her.

Link meanwhile had pulled himself out of the water along the rope and climbed onto the stairs leading up into the corridor. The dragon made it out into the fire temple and then turned around, preparing to make another pass with its talons. Link stood up and raised The Master Sword, preparing to counter attack when it entered the corridor.

Volvagia flew at Link and he responded by assuming a stance and the two of them met in the middle. Link blocked the talons with his shield and then swung his sword at a section where Volvagia had lost her armor, his sword cleaved through the dark flesh and black blood of the monster and it shrieked in agony, raking its talons across his back in response. The attack was mostly blocked by his chainmail but the impact still knocked the wind out of him. Despite this he managed to swing his sword again and cut the entire tail off the monster. It wheeled around in an attempt to launch another attack on Link but before it could strike a Gerudo arrow streaked through the air and penetrated its neck, it lost focus just long enough for Link to dodge another attack and leap onto its back.

Link raised his sword high above his head and then proceeded to cut the dragon's head off.

Volvagia let out one final screech before its head was severed and the body thrashed around uncontrolled for a moment before plunging into the frigid water. The dark water continued to gush from the hole that had been torn in the wall of the chamber and flow out the doors around Link's ankles at high speed. Steam was roiling up from the chasm outside the doors and a series of sharp cracks permeated the air and the ground began to rumble. Link and his companions looked around for the source of the disturbance but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary other than tiny rock fragments falling from the ceiling. It was Darunia that figured out what was going on first.

"We have frozen the mountain too quickly, the rock is crumbling, the temple may collapse any minute!" Darunia shouted. Just as he said this a blue circle of light appeared on the floor underneath the rushing current. Larger boulders began to fall from the ceiling and the four wasted no time getting to the portal, disappearing one by one into the circle of light until all of them had disappeared into the netherworld. Boulders fell and buried the magic portal only moments behind them, and then less than a minute after their departure, the entire temple under the mountain collapsed.

((()))

Link found himself once again in the center of the Chamber of the Sages, his red tunic stood out in stark contrast to the blue light and many formations of the vast area. Now three sages were there, and Link had noticed the lights seemed to be brighter and the chamber seemed to have expanded to be larger. Rauru stood at the top of the circle on a golden pedestal, then a sixth of the way around was Saria with a green robe and staff, and then another sixth around the circle was Darunia, with robes that appeared to be made of fire and Gothorodon's hammer in his hand. His platform was made of a strange red metal with the insignia of the gorons upon it.

"You have done well, Link, and freed the Sage of Fire. Half of the sages of Hyrule now are free, only three more temples remain. You are doing extraordinarily well, but something troubles you… what is it?" Rauru asked.

"This shadow, I have encountered it twice now. What is it and what does it desire?" Link asked. Rauru frowned and waved his hand through the air and a strange magical breeze followed his hand. Link's eyes darkened and he saw a black ball surrounded by stars and the sun and the moon.

"This is the world before the goddesses formed it, a forsaken wasteland." Rauru stated. Link's vision approached the sphere and suddenly he was on water, dark like the waters from within Death Mountain's caverns, Link didn't need to be told to know that it was the same water, and in it something moved.

"From this primeval darkness, a consciousness formed. From the darkness was born shadow, and he called himself 'The Shade'." Rauru stated. Three pillars of light descended from the sky and within them were the goddesses and The Shade rose from the water, mimicking the appearance of the goddesses.

"It just wanted to be one of them, but they saw the form that had risen from the darkness and were horrified. They shunned him and made the world hostile to him." Rauru said. In Link's vision the goddesses formed the world. Mountains rose from water and the sky brightened, the dry red earth turned brown and grass grew from it, and creatures came and grazed upon it. Trees grew up and the forest was formed. Then the Hylians arrived, not as they were now but much larger with broad shoulders and powerful muscles. They chased a shadowy man-form with clubs and rocks and bronze swords, and the shadow escaped into a cave.

"The shadow lived, in the deep places, and the dark places, and the Hylians feared him. He was not a force of evil, he tried to live among the Hylians, and the Gorons, and the Zora, and even the Gerudo, but none of them would accept him. Their fear drove him to become evil. Now whenever you visit the dark places where light does not reach, you feel a slight dread, because your nature has formed you to fear the silence and the shadow. A fear so powerful and yet undefined that your deepest instinct will drive you from a silent dark place as if it were a house of plague." Rauru explained.

"So, the shadow was not always evil?" Link asked, his vision faded and he returned to the Chamber of the Sages. Rauru nodded a yes in response to his question.

"He tried so hard to be good, but darkness will always be dark, it was in his nature to become evil, it was a definite change that no set of options could curtail." Rauru replied. Link understood now why the shadow hated him so much, wanted to destroy him. Wielding the Master Sword he had become an embodiment of everything that had tormented Shadow Link for thousands of years.

"Brother"

Link turned to face Darunia who in one hand held out a medallion of the same strange red metal as the platform he stood on, and in the other Gothorodon's Hammer.

"I wish I could give you more, but these gifts will have to do, this medallion contains the power of fire, it will let you borrow my strength. The hammer I bid you take, you are the bravest Hylian who ever lived and you deserve it. We will be sworn brothers forever." Darunia said. Link took the hammer and the medallion and put them in the pouch on his side. Darunia stepped back to his platform and Link spoke.

"Has this chamber gotten brighter?" Link asked. Rauru nodded.

"This chamber may appear to be independent of Hyrule, but it is not, the state of this chamber reflects the status of Hyrule. When Hyrule suffers, so do its sages." Rauru replied. Saria pointed towards the edge of the chamber, an indefinite border of darkness, and when Link looked closely he saw stars faintly glowing in it.

"The stars were probably invisible when you first came here, now they are beginning to show through the dark shroud that had fallen over this place. Keep up the good work, return freedom to Hyrule" Saria stated.

"I will, I promise." Link replied. The Triforce insignia under his feet glowed and a light rose up around him. Link raised his hand and waved goodbye to Saria as he was engulfed in golden light and faded out of existence, returning to the real world.

((()))

"The mountain is cooling; the threat of eruption no longer looms over Hyrule."

Link felt a warm breeze across his face and a feeling of deep comfort that he didn't want to break by standing up. He hadn't had any time to relax and escape from his life since basically when he had left on his quest. He was tired and needed to relax but at the same time he knew that he couldn't for very long. His eyes remained closed for a moment more until a rumbling beneath him made him leap up to his feet and look in every direction for an enemy. But it was not a creature that caused the disturbance, it was the mountain itself.

Sheik sat on a rock a few feet away looking at him and Link quickly tried to figure out where he was. It was very simple once he got a good look at his surroundings; they were near the trail leading up the mountain, less than a mile away from the Goron city. Link found that he had been sleeping in between two large boulders and Sheik had been sitting on one next to him. His red tunic was gone, somehow while he was asleep he had changed into his green one and his sword and shield bandolier was leaning against one of the boulders. all three of the red tunics (Links, Sheik's, and the spare) had been balled up and put under Link's head like a pillow and his belt lay at his feet complete with the magic pouch which had obviously been rifled through at one point. Sheik held in her hand a large piece of salted meat from the provisions and it was evident that up until Link had woken up she had been eating it with her mask pulled down. Noting Link's obvious confusion at their changed circumstances, she pointed up at the sky where the sun was high overhead, almost at noon.

"The mountain is settling down. You appeared a little after midnight, you have not gotten much rest and I didn't want you to freeze so I changed your tunic for you and bandaged your burns. I must say that your garments are incredible, everything that you got from the temple of time repaired itself." Sheik stated. Link was too disoriented to even care; he just sat up and gratefully took the piece of meat when it was offered to him. He ate a good amount and did it quickly so they could get moving again soon. He washed it down with a gulp of water and then picked up his sword bandolier and waist belt and put them on, ready to continue onward. He wasn't entirely sure where to go next so he just followed Sheik when she began leading him in the direction of the Goron city.

"Something big is going on in the city, now that the mountain is at peace there will be a festival. Darunia and the Gerudo arrived here at the same time as I did but they left for the city and I waited for you, now we should probably hurry." Sheik stated. Link and Sheik ran up the way and Link finished what remained of his red potion to speed up the healing of his burns. They reached the Goron city after only a few minutes of dashing up the mountainside from where they had appeared. By the time they were within half a mile they could feel drums beating in the ground and within a quarter mile they could hear Goron shouts.

Link and Sheik passed through the stone archway that led into the mountain, for the first time on good terms, and were amazed by what they found inside. The water they had unleashed inside the mountain had even found the Goron city, so high up in the order of the mountain. Link wondered just how much water he had unleashed by breaking open the caverns. The bottom tier of the city was filled up with four feet of water, but rather than deserting it, the gorons had struck up fires and were shoveling hot coals into the water and the Hylians and gorons sat on benches in it. Sophia stood on a platform on the second tier that overlooked the lowest tier, she was holding a wooden staff in her hand much like the one that had been held by Saria when she had become a sage, and Sophia was shouting Gerudo magic to make magical lights in the air and lift cinders that had cooled back up to be returned to the fires to reheat.

Lined up on the three tiers above the water were rows of Gorons and Hylians dancing around in circles with at least three dozen drums among them which beat out rhythms at incredible speed. Darunia himself was leaping from tier to tier dancing even faster than everybody else. He still wore a robe that appeared made from condensed flame and in his hand he held an iron staff which he spun around in his hands while he danced, creating an effect of being enveloped in a whirlwind of flame.

"You earned this, have fun. I on the other hand have work to do. Be at Lon Lon ranch by tomorrow." Sheik said from behind him. Link turned to ask if she wasn't going to come down to join the dance but when he circled around to face her, she was gone. He looked in every direction to try and find her but she had simply disappeared into thin air. He wondered what she meant by telling him to go to the ranch down in the fields tomorrow. If he left that night and went down to the foot of the mountain he would have plenty of time in the morning to make it to Lon Lon by noon tomorrow.

"Brother, you have arrived!" Darunia shouted happily, he leapt into the air all the way to where Link stood and grabbed him by the arm with his free hand.

"Come brother, there is food, wonderful food, rocks from the depths of the caverns for my people, and the greatest food in Hyrule for yours. The Hylians even bring wine, in the amount of forty barrel!" Darunia shouted excitedly. Link followed him down the tiers to a storehouse that had originally been for bombs, now empty from the long war with Volvagia. The room had instead been filled with kegs and dark rocks and huge platters of steaming food. Link wasted no time in attacking one of the platters and within minutes an entire helping of grilled cuckoo had disappeared. When he had eaten more than his fill Link approached the kegs and filled a tankard with dark purple wine. He drank some and then some more, and as he continued to party with the gorons and drink more wine he continued to get more and more dizzy, but the feeling was simultaneously good and bad, so he drank some more.

Time lost meaning and at some point he remembered being lifted up onto Darunia's shoulders and he remembered the chant that had risen up to the drumbeat from the Hylians and gorons in the room.

_Hail Link_

_The Goron Brother_

_The Hylian Hero_

_Wielder of the Master Sword_

_He cleaved the dragon, bringer of doom_

_He calmed the mountain and lit this room_

_All Hail Link!_

After that he didn't remember much else, getting in a drinking competition with Darunia was not the greatest idea he had ever had and he was thankful that Navi wasn't there to see it. At some point he fell asleep in the store room and when he woke back up he felt sick and his head ached. Link rose to his feet and his vision spun, he stood still for a moment bracing himself against the wall and focused on clearing his head. After a few moments of intense focus he felt steadier and his headache faded, he wondered if that was another effect of the Triforce.

Link walked out of the store room, not having any interest in drinking any more wine, he retightened his boots which had somehow loosened during the party and stepped outside. Link wasn't sure how much time had passed but he was pretty sure the sun had gone down and it was night. The drumbeats had slowed and when Link stepped back out in the main chamber he saw that it was because most people had fallen asleep or were extremely mellow from having drunk so much wine.

Link wanted to thank Sophia for helping him and coming back to his side, but he saw that she had fallen asleep against the wall with a half empty tankard of wine in her hand and he didn't feel like waking her up for something like a goodbye, considering that she would probably be seeing him again sometime soon.

Darunia was sitting up on a platform suspended in the air by ropes over the main chamber. Darunia himself was playing a large drum slowly along with a few others while talking around in a circle. Link climbed up to the top tier and then shouted across to him.

"Darunia, I must continue onward on my quest, this will be farewell for a while!" Link shouted across the gap. Darunia rose to his feet and leapt across so that he stood a few feet away from Link, facing him. He looked out into the cold night outside and then raised his closed right fist so it hovered an arms length away from Link.

"This is the Goron farewell, never before has a Hylian been allowed to do it. It is quite simple; we punch each other's fists. It is the farewell of sworn brothers; we call it the brother fist." Darunia stated. Link pulled back his fist and Darunia prepared to punch lightly, not wanting to actually harm Link with a full Goron punch.

"Farewell, sworn brother!" Link and Darunia shouted at the same time before slamming their fists into each other, Link focused a little bit of Dins fire into the punch and Darunia stumbled backwards, surprised by the power of Link's swing.

"You are full of surprises Link, I'm sure we shall meet again some day. When the time comes to face Gannondorf, the full might of the Gorons will be behind you." Darunia said. Link nodded and then waved farewell before turning and walking away out into the cold Death Mountain night.

By now the mountain had calmed down and the ring of smoke had faded into the night sky. Link had hardly been walking for a few minutes when something cold and invisible touched the tip of his nose. He looked up and saw tiny flakes of white snow falling through the sky. It was snowing.


	29. The Way Things Are

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 29: The Way Things Are

Going down the mountain took a while, thankfully the snowfall was not very sudden, nor did very much accumulate save for a thin powdery white layer on the ground on which his tracks showed red the stone of the mountain. Link didn't feel tired and he didn't feel a need to hurry, so he walked down the mountain trail with very little sense of urgency. Usually the night was dark but in spite of the thin snow fall the sky was clear and the full moon and stars shone brightly in the crisp cold air. Not a sound could be heard on the mountain as Link descended it aside from the howling of the wind and Link began to miss Navi's presence. She had been annoying sometimes and they had their disagreements, but even the worst day with Navi had been better than walking alone.

After about a mile of walking he came to a curve in the path where a large boulder sat on the precipice of the cliff overlooking all of Hyrule. Usually at night one could not see very far but the full moon and millions of stars were enough to fill all of Hyrule with light. When Link looked from up on the mountain side, he realized that the world was reflecting his progress. The forest was brightly lit by moonlight and the fairy streamers that floated through the air. Everything else on the other side of the river was hard to make out but the forest was clearly visible. A shroud of darkness covered Hyrule Field, Lake Hylia, Hyrule Castle, and the Gerudo Desert beyond that. Surprising to Link was that there was also darkness above the village at the foot of the mountain. Not the entire village but just the very back of the graveyard and a spot near the windmill appeared dark and strange. Something was brewing down there but he couldn't imagine what darkness could have possibly infiltrated the well defended village, maybe something older that would never come to power in his time. Either way he didn't have time to dwell on it for any longer, he had to keep moving down the mountain. He stood up and continued walking down the trail towards the base of the mountain.

The road had been repaired since seven years ago when he had last used it, obviously to allow Hylian carts up the mountain. His descent was definitely faster than it would have been without the repaired road, but he had trouble keeping track of time because he had nothing to fill the time with other than a monotonous walk down the side of the mountain. Only the moon crossing the night sky gave him any semblance of time, so he knew it was likely nearly three in the morning when he reached Kakariko village.

The new walls that had been constructed had been further built up while Link had been away and more space had been cleared with haste at the top of the village. There were not very many people out aside from a few troublemaking teenagers and soldiers manning the walls incase anybody tried to sneak in. As Link approached the wall facing the mountain several archers stood and prepared to shoot, having their bows raised but not drawn back.

"Who goes there?" one of the guards shouted. Link stopped and raised his hands high overhead to show he didn't have any weapons in his hands and shouted up to the guard.

"My name is Link; I come with news of victory! I killed the dragon!" Link shouted up to the guard. The steel gate facing the mountain top opened and the guards lowered their weapons.

"We saw explosions and smoke rising from the mountain this morning, we thought the mountain would erupt, and then the smoke turned to steam and the ring of flame was extinguished and the mountain returned to peace. Sheik and Lector spoke of a hero named Link… is it true that you carry The Master Sword?" The guard shouted from his post at the top of the wall. In response Link reached behind his back and drew the sword, its blade gleaming with an unnatural blue light. The gate was opened and Link sheathed his sword before entering the village and the gate shortly after was sealed behind him. The guards wanted to speak with Link but were smart enough to not leave their posts so they pointed him in the direction of an inn that may or may not have had room. Link didn't go there though, instead going up to the well where he had spied the darkness from upon the mountain. Link walked up to the edge of the well and looked down into it. The moon was too bright for him to see down into the water as it reflective off the oddly calm surface twenty feet below. A ladder ran down the side of the well into the water but at this time of night Link wouldn't even consider going down into that water for no discernable reason at night, but at the same time was curious. After a few moments he decided there was nothing he could do about the well and stepped away, continuing onwards towards the graveyard.

The sky seemed to darken as he approached and a chill ran up his spine, he didn't want to stay around there for very long and proceeded into Dampe's shack without investigating the blackness surrounding the place of the dead. He lifted the door aside to get in and placed it back as he had before and found that the inside of the shack had remained quite dry and comfortable despite the damage he had done to the door nearly a week ago. He wasted no time in taking his armor and tunic off and quickly descended onto the bed into a dark and fitful sleep…

((()))

Malon looked out over the fields of Hyrule from the top of the old watch tower. 7 days was what the strange visitor had said and now she waited for his arrival. She clutched a cloak tightly around her body to keep out the morning chill and her fiery red hair spilled over her shoulders and down her back. The dawn to the east was brighter and more brilliant than she had ever seen it in years but the sky to the north and west remained black as midnight. Her dark brown eyes scanned the fields looking for some form of a sign other than the incredible sunrise that a hero was on his way. She waited up there for a long time as the sun continued to rise higher in the sky. But after nearly three hours of just standing and staring blankly down at the fields, she saw something that didn't make sense.

It was as if part of the ground itself were moving. Malon watched closely and saw that it was really someone about a mile off wearing green clothes, only his white sleeves and brown pants gave away that he really wasn't just another part of the massive expanse of grass and occasional trees. There was no doubt about the fact that he was headed for the ranch and without further watching Malon leapt for joy and then climbed quickly down the ladder and began running back in the direction of the ranch house.

"And just where might you be going in such a hurry?" A threatening voice behind her shouted. Malon stopped and turned and saw Ingo storming towards her, the most worrisome part being the pitchfork over his shoulder. A voice in the back of her mind told her it would be a very good idea to run right about then but for some reason she didn't and stuck around as he stopped with his chest practically touching her face. He grabbed her by the shoulder and roughly spun her around, crouching down so his head was on her level.

"See that over there? Do you know what is in there?" Ingo asked. Malon shook her head unsure and Ingo brought his face closer to her ear. She could feel his hot and unclean breath on her neck and began struggling to pull away from him, but his grip was too strong and she couldn't budge.

"The cows that you were supposed to be milking two hours ago, woman!" Ingo shouted the last word and her ear rang from it as he shoved her in the direction of the horse barn. She tripped in a rut in the ground and fell down and Ingo approached her again.

"Why are you lying down? Its time to work you bitch!" Ingo shouted. He grabbed the pitchfork in two hands and slammed the butt-end of it into her side. Pain erupted through her body from the kidney shot but it was still merely one bruise to join the others. She began trying to get up and he kept shouting at her to move faster, when she didn't he began planting kicks and continued to hit her with the butt of his pitchfork. She continued trying to rise under the beating but it was too much and she fell flat, resigning to whatever beating she would receive for being unable to rise. She was kicked a few more times but then suddenly the beating stopped and there was shouting, not directed at her either. One voice was Ingo's and the other was unfamiliar. Malon tried again to rise as an argument she couldn't comprehend occurred above her but she couldn't eventually she stopped trying to rise once again and instead tried to listen to the argument going on above her where she could not see.

"Yeah, sure, she got kicked by a horse! How many feet did this horse of yours have? If you're really so worried about her then go get some supplies to treat these injuries and while you're at it, clean that blood off the butt of your weapon so maybe next time you can tell a convincing lie!" The unfamiliar voice shouted. Malon heard Ingo storming off angrily and someone grabbed her, but not like how Ingo did, the hands were softer and bore gauntlets. A soldier of Hyrule? Not possible in this age. She tried to see who he was but her vision was blurred by pain and tears, she decided he was friendly enough and struggling wouldn't do her much good anyhow so she let him pick her up and put her over his shoulder.

She was draped across his back and felt a smooth and finely crafted piece of steel there, a shield, and behind it was a sword sheath for what must have been a massive longsword. She tried to thank him but couldn't think well enough to say anything intelligible.

"Don't worry, you're safe now" The Knight replied. She didn't know who he was but she immediately felt safer anyways when he said this. She was carried for at least a hundred meters and could sense that the new place was the lower floor of the house which doubled as a cuckoo nest where she was set down on a pile of hay.

"That sick fool isn't bringing anything to help you with; he would have gotten it by now if he was going to. My supplies are nearly depleted but I can spare them to help you." The mysterious knight stated. Malon attempted to say 'thank you' but it just came out as a jumbled murmur.

"How often does he hurt you like this? You're pretty beat up." Link asked. Malon grimaced as Link said this and imagined what her injuries must have looked like.

"You never told me your name." Malon mumbled, managing this time to properly articulate the words. The mysterious knight grinned and pulled out a blue ocarina in response.

"Actually I did, it's just been a while… You didn't answer my question." The Knight stated. Malon tried to think of who he could be and her question was answered when he played her mother's song on his ocarina. She remembered there was only one person who she ever taught that and he too had worn green, she had assumed he was dead after everything that had happened over the last seven years but when she thought about it she had always known in the back of her mind that he would come back.

"I knew you'd come back Link… He does this pretty often, but I'll survive… It's just the way things are."

((()))

**3 hours earlier**

Link awoke at dawn, tired.

The village was in the shadow of the mountain but the sky was dark blue and gold around its edges. Fog had entered the room through the broken door and it was so cold that Link could see his breath mingling with it. The edges of the window were coated in frost and a layer of the stuff outside made the entire area look a shade lighter in color. Link wasted no time rising and putting back on all of his equipment and clothing and within fifteen minutes was fully ready to go. He figured it to be around seven in the morning, though it could have been earlier with just a brilliant sunrise. With the sun hidden behind the mountain there was no way of telling precisely.

Link stepped out of the house and looked around at the massive fog filled graveyard. Something wasn't right, it was bright out but the area seemed sadder and gloomier than was usual, even for a graveyard. Whatever darkness he had spied the night before was still lingering into the daytime. Link felt like investigating but at the same time didn't want to waste time searching through an empty graveyard. Just as he was about to turn and head back to the village a black wind blew through the graveyard and stirred up the mountainous piles of dead leaves strewn about. A wind chime on the side of the sign to the graveyard clanged and added to the eeriness and suddenly Link lost all desire to be there at that moment.

Link turned around and quickly walked away from the graveyard, checking on his way to make sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, when he was satisfied there was nothing left behind he carefully made his way through the narrow pass leading back to the village. Already at this early hour most of the people in the village had risen and were working at their respective jobs. A steady flow of soldiers descended from the mountain path and were being welcomed by cheering citizens. Link was glad to see such joy had been brought to the village that had not experienced merriment in years. Many Gorons accompanied the victorious Hylian Army and carried with them all manner of rare materials from the mountain that would be useful in the village, the first being several carts laden with ingots of iron. Link had overheard back during his first visit to the village as an adult that they were running low on iron and other metals to the point of melting down old tools and rusty bolts to make military equipment.

Several other carts were loaded with various rare materials that would be useful for continuing to build the strength of the army. Link was careful to avoid the crowd, not because he didn't want the attention but because he didn't want the delay that would come with it, he had somewhere to go and while he was still pretty tired he didn't have time to linger for anything less important than the future of Hyrule. There was still work to be done.

Link passed through the town relatively unnoticed save for the guards on the top of the wall at the west end on the way out. They gave him a roaring applause and he waved back at them as he left but they didn't attempt to follow him as he went, and he was glad for that because he had a feeling that his next quest would be personal, he didn't need a column of Knights following him planning on liberating all of Hyrule in open battle. You couldn't fight such powerful evil that way; Hyrule's armies still had a long way to go before they would be ready to face the full might of the Gerudo and Gannondorf's summoned armies.

Link made his way down through the boulders at the foot of the mountain after leaving the village and found his way to the field after about an hour of navigating down the foot of the mountain he reached the hills at the edge of Hyrule Field. Link watched the tower to the north as he passed through the field and was ready to quickly draw any of his various weapons if anything approached him. But in the wide open field any enemy would be hard pressed to catch him unaware and during the majority of his trip towards Lon Lon ranch there was nothing at all in sight aside from the old watchtower that rose high above the field.

It was when he was about half a mile away from the ranch that he suddenly broke into a sprint, and then it was because a bloodcurdling scream rose up from the ranch. Link had never known speed like what he had in that moment as he sprinted towards the ranch. The back of his left hand burned and he knew he was using the energy of the Triforce of Courage. His speed increased and he could feel the eyes of Gannondorf observing him from the dark castle miles away. Gannondorf had detected his power but Link was moving so fast that Gannondorf's magic vision could not follow him.

It took less than a minute to reach the ranch, the grass of the field had blurred by and before Link even knew what was going on he had entered the ranch and his sword was drawn, before him was a man he recognized as Ingo in his hand he held a pitchfork with blood spattered on the handle end. Below him was a young woman with red hair covered in bruises and cuts which Link was sure had been inflicted by the pitchfork's handle.

"Step back before I kill you!" Link shouted, drawing his sword. He didn't bother pulling his shield off his back, rather just held The Master Sword before him in two hands. His grip was white knuckled and he was having a great deal of difficulty keeping from charging forward and cutting him down right at that moment. Ingo stepped backward and rose up the pitchfork as if it would have been a match for Link's far superior weapon.

"Who the hell are you?" Ingo shouted, holding his pitchfork aloft.

"Just a guy, but I'm not going to let this continue." Link replied, Ingo took a step backwards and pointed over at one of the horses near the corral.

"She got kicked by a horse, I just ran over to help." Ingo replied. Link looked at the blood on handle of the pitchfork and on Ingo's shoes and even just looking at the bruises he knew that there was no way he was telling the truth, those were not from any horse.

"Yeah, sure, she got kicked by a horse! How many feet did this horse of yours have? If you're really so worried about her then go get some supplies to treat these injuries and while you're at it, clean that blood off the butt of your weapon so maybe next time you can tell a convincing lie!" Link shouted back. Ingo ran off in fear taking his pitchfork with him and Link sheathed his sword. He ran over to Malon who was still lying prone on the ground with her eyes closed and knelt down next to her. For a split second Link wondered if she was dead but then pushed that out of his mind immediately, her injuries were not nearly that severe. Still, she had her fair share of bad cuts and bruises that could become a problem if not treated. Link grabbed her gently under the arms and lifted her up over his shoulder, careful to make sure that she was positioned so she wasn't being jabbed by the hilt of his sword or his shield. Malon groaned and tried to say something unintelligible and Link tried to think of a good response.

"Don't worry, you're safe right now." Link replied, still unsure what she had said but knowing that his response would be good regardless. He carried the unconscious form of Malon for a little over a hundred meters until they reached the ranch house where he set her down on a pile of hay inside. He didn't know very much about treating injuries but he knew enough to do a little for her, putting what little red potion he had left on the cuts and bruises that covered her and making her drink the rest. He made sure the larger cuts were clean and then covered them with the remainder of the bandages given to him at Death Mountain. Malon remained silent and drifted in and out of consciousness while Link treated her injuries.

"That sick fool isn't bringing anything to help you with; he would have gotten it by now if he was going to. My supplies are nearly depleted but I can spare them to help you." Link stated. Malon attempted to say 'thank you' but it just came out as a jumbled murmur.

"How often does he hurt you like this? You're pretty beat up." Link asked. Malon grimaced as Link said this and imagined what her injuries must have looked like. Link finished wrapping her injuries and placed his hand over the bandage on her forehead.

"You never told me your name." Malon mumbled, managing this time to properly articulate the words. Link grinned and in response reached into the pouch at his side and pulled out The Ocarina of Time.

"Actually I did, it's just been a while… You didn't answer my question." Link stated. He saw that she was still not quite sure who he was, so Link lifted the ocarina to his lips and played the song she had taught him all those years ago. Outside a horse that Link knew must have been Epona neighed and he saw the recognition in her eyes when that happened. Link didn't know it but he was the only person who she ever taught that melody, she had assumed he was dead after everything that had happened over the last seven years but when she thought about it she had always known in the back of her mind that he would come back.

"I knew you'd come back Link… He does this pretty often, but I'll survive… It's just the way things are." Malon replied. Link was about to ask what he could do to help but before he could Malon slipped back into unconsciousness. Link stooped down and gently picked her up and carried her up the stairs and down the hallway to a room with her name carved into the door. A lock had been installed on the outside and Link grimaced when he saw it. He pushed the door open with his foot and found a dark room on the other side. Sunlight filtered in thin lines through closed wooden blinds and dust swirled in the air as the door was opened, sending particulate through the narrow beams of light and making the rays visible, giving the room an odd musty feel. He carried her over to the bed and put her down and put blankets over her before leaving the room. He grabbed the lock on the outside of the door on the way out and ripped it off with his bare hand. He dropped the lock in the pouch at his side and then turned to walk down the hallway. Ingo was standing at the end of the hallway obviously holding back a great deal of anger. Link was holding back a bit of his own as well.

"If you're smart, you won't even think of opening that door." Link growled as he brushed past Ingo. He turned his head as he reached the end of the hall and saw Ingo stop for a moment outside Malon's door before moving onward, he knew that Link meant business. Link waited until Ingo had closed the door to his room before heading down the stairs planning on sleeping on the pile of hay that had been occupied by Malon moments before, he had not gotten much sleep and he was feeling the effects, for now everybody needed to be removed from the situation for a short time so they could all cool off before he did anything about Ingo. Link was about half way down the stairs when he heard a familiar yet still frightening voice in his ear.

"Going somewhere?"

Link nearly leapt out of his boots and instinctively whirled around with his sword in hand, pointing it at the chest of the figure that had somehow appeared behind him. He immediately lowered his weapon when his thought overpowered his instinct and stood at the bottom of the stairs facing Sheik.

"By the goddesses! How did you get behind me like that?" Link whispered urgently, not wanting to alert Ingo that another person was in the house.

"Its simple, I wanted to. Where there is a will there is a way." Sheik replied cryptically. They went down into the main room as they discussed their current plan of action. Link took a seat on one of the stools around the table and Sheik bypassed the chairs and leapt up onto a shelf eight feet off the floor.

"Why didn't you tell me what was going on here as soon as you found me in the temple of time, I could have come here first. My route to the forest passed this place by less than a mile." Link stated. There was a sadness in Sheik's eyes that Link had not seen before; for once she actually truly was sorry about something.

"There was no good way for you to do that. You yourself were ready to wield The Master Sword two years before you were awakened but it took time for the amount of light energy to wake you to be summoned in such a darkened world. If you had been only moments later in arriving to the forest there is no doubt that Saria would now be dead, and had you not battled Volvagia at the very hour you did then Darunia too would be slain." Sheik stated. Link shook his head at this.

"But how could you have known that, how could you possibly have known the future! Tell me why you didn't tell me at the time you did!" Link shouted angrily, forgetting momentarily that he didn't want Ingo to overhear him and realize another person was about.

"Because I knew you would have come here first, and there was not a single moment to lose. You're talking about one woman; I'm talking about the fate of Hyrule. I was not granted the wisdom of a goddess to waste it on saving one girl while watching Hyrule burn!" Sheik shouted back. She realized what she had said and hoped that Link would not notice, but he did.

"What do you mean by 'wisdom of a goddess'? Who are you?" Link questioned. Sheik looked down at the floor and then leapt down from her perch on the shelf.

"My father was descended from the first king of Hyrule, the blood of royals' flows in my veins, the power to lead. My mother was a Sheikah; her blood was that of heroes, her blood and my fathers makes me a great and noble warrior. For this the goddesses deemed me a worthy companion for The Hero of Time on his quests. That is all you need to know." Sheik replied. Link tried to figure out what all of this meant but could not comprehend that which was hidden behind the words. For all his heroic traits he still only had the linguistic skill of a kid who had spent his entire life in the forest.

"Someday, when Hyrule is freed, I will no longer need to hide behind this mask and you will understand then why I wear it now." Sheik stated. Link nodded as if he understood but he really did not. Sheik looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes for a moment before looking back over at Link.

"I suggest you speak with Ingo now, or whenever the opportunity presents itself." Sheik recommended.

"Why is that?" Link asked.

"Because I very much doubt you'll be able to get into the barn without a key. I will be seeing you around." Sheik stated. Rather than her usual showy exits she simply walked out the door but when Link ran over to the door and opened it to see which direction she had gone she had completely disappeared, open ground for fifty yards in all directions and she had less than five seconds to cover it.

Link retreated back into the house and considered sleeping on the pile of hay in the main room but after a moment of thought decided he could sacrifice comfort for security and went up the stairs and pulled an arrow out of his pouch. He set it against the seam between the door and the frame on Ingo's room so the slightest opening of the door would cause it to fall and make noise.

Once his warning device was set up Link walked over to the door to Malon's room and took his weapons bandolier off. He sat down leaning against the wall with the sword and shield belt across his lap. His hand was on the hilt of The Master Sword in case he found urgent need to draw it but he didn't think he would, Ingo was crazy and was willing to beat Malon but he wasn't stupid enough to challenge someone armed with a sword and shield, especially in the close quarters of a hallway.

Link balled his hat up behind his head and adjusted to the most comfortable position he could get in sitting on the hardwood floor before closing his eyes and slowly drifting off to much needed real sleep.


	30. Safe Refuge

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Chapter 30: Safe Refuge

Lector was happy for the first time in a while. Victory had been achieved on Death Mountain and much of the population of the village had been evacuated to the safety of the forest for the time being. As it were he was traveling with a group of thirty women and children with six knights as an escort and had already passed through the ancient Goron tunnel into the lost woods.

"Are they the last of them?" A voice asked from within the woods. Lector didn't bother searching for the voice because he already knew the speaker was a well camouflaged child of the forest.

"Yes, they have carried all of the supplies they will need for three weeks, including tents and weapons." Lector replied. A figure dropped from a tree to his right and when he looked he saw a Kokiri child with red hair and a purple fairy with a short sword on his belt. Lector was surprised by the fact that the Kokiri had come from his right since the voice had sounded like it was coming from his left, but when the child spoke it was obvious he was the same one.

"You will follow this path, I am sure you already know it well, I have seen you take it many times in the last few days. Follow it closely to avoid monsters that live in the forest, they dare not near the path, and a weapon like that ought to be handy if they try." The Kokiri replied, gesturing towards the Hylian Longsword on Lector's belt four feet in total length. He pointed down a trampled path through the woods to be sure that Lector had the right directions and then turned and leapt into the shrubbery, in moments there was no trace of him left at all. Lector raised his hand and spun it in a circle, the signal for everybody to gather around him.

"When we get to the village I will be collecting your weapons, that place is safe and there will be no need to defend it. A small guard will be stationed at the only entrances to the forest for safety anyways but the war effort needs every weapon available. Our weapons should not stagnate in places that are already safe." Lector stated. There was a murmur of agreement from the small crowd gathered around him.

"The war is almost over, almost half of Hyrule has already been liberated by The Hero of Time in the last week alone. Your provisions should last until the end of the war. If they don't, more will be brought from Kakariko for you, as you well know some people have volunteered to stay there to support the needs of the military and you with farming and construction. Any questions?" Lector asked. Nobody said anything and after a few seconds Lector turned to face down the path.

"Good, then let's move." Lector ordered. He led the group through the lost woods along the path laid out by the Kokiri a few days before. He found himself continually experiencing a strong urge to move off the path but he fought the strange desire in the back of his mind which he knew to be a trick of the forest's magic and continued to lead the group forward.

"No matter what! Don't fall behind and don't leave the group!" Lector shouted as one of the women in the cluster of refugees began to veer off into the forest. They continued to walk for a short distance until they found themselves at the top of a cliff with a path winding downward into a village of a couple dozen houses built from giant tree trunks still rooted in the ground. It appeared that a provisionary had been set up in one of the houses since Lector's last group had arrived six hours before and a stockpile of food and drinking water and medicine had been created. It appeared another group had arrived only minutes before because there was another group headed by a knight in light leather armor that was still walking down towards the village. Tents filled the valley and multiple houses also appeared to have been moved into by the citizens of Hyrule. The Kokiri children were having varied reactions. On the first day it had been suspicion of the new arrivals and on the second they appeared unsure of what to make of them. Now on the third day they were hastily running around and shaking hands and talking with the new arrivals, trying to get whatever news they could of the outside world.

"Welcome to the Kokiri Village. Ever since the new Deku Tree began to grow monsters can't come to this place. There is an empty spot right down there next to that house with the ladder going up to it." A young girl in a green tunic with long blonde hair and green eyes said. She began to skip down the path that zigzagged down the side of the cliff and the refugees who had not seen happiness in a long time laughed and followed behind her.

Lector let the refugees pass him and decided since he didn't have any more groups to take he could afford to spend a few minutes to inspect the camp. He followed them all the way to the bottom of the cliff and looked around at the temporary settlement with curiosity, trying to find something to help with while he was there. Presently no problems were visible so he continued walking with the group towards the house with the ladder going up to it.

They reached an area near the base of the house and began setting up their tents there. Lector helped a few of the expatriated pitch their tents and then when he was done there he decided there was nothing else he could do there and decided to head back. As he passed the foot of the tree house something caught his eye, a sign on the short path leading up to it.

_Link's House_

Lector's jaw dropped and he looked up at the tree house with extreme curiosity. He took a few tentative steps towards it, desperately wanting to see what it looked like inside. He wanted to know where a hero like that could come from, maybe there were others in Hyrule like him. He reached the foot of the ladder and heard a few light steps behind him. If he didn't have such finely tuned senses he wouldn't have heard them at all. He turned and saw a girl garbed entirely in green with a teal fairy sitting on her shoulder. She wore a long green robe and carried a wooden staff, Lector had not seen her yet but he knew without her saying so that she was the sage of the forest.

"You're Saria." Lector stated.

"You're Lector… I assume you read the sign at the end of the yard." Saria stated, looking sadly up past Lector at the tree house behind him. Lector turned and faced it and nodded a yes to her question. She pointed up at the doorway with her staff and gave Lector a light shove in that direction.

"If you want to look, I don't think he would mind." Saria stated. Lector slowly walked up to the foot of the ladder and began to climb, feeling the fluttering sensation in his stomach of being in the presence of something far more powerful than himself, the place that had created The Hero of Time. He climbed the ladder and reached the porch and saw darkness on the other side. He took a few slow steps across the porch and then pushed aside the wax cloth covering the door and stooped down to fit through the child sized entryway. Inside was dark but there was enough light that he could still see everything inside.

Dust swirled through the air and he knew nobody had been there for a very long time. He tried to imagine the hero who would save the world having come from such an unseemly place. Nothing there would even remotely suggest it was the source of someone as important as The Hero of Time. A thick layer of dust covered everything and made everything a shade lighter of brown. Rather than having furniture brought into the house the furniture had actually been built into it. The house had been carved out of the inside of a tree and things like the bed and the chest of drawers had simply been carved from the existing wood.

Lector walked over to the drawers and looked in the mirror sitting on top of it, a thick layer of accumulated dust made it difficult to see him in but he wiped it off with his hand and saw that it was in perfect condition. He wondered how something like that finely crafted mirror had ended up so deep in the woods where the tools to make it were nowhere to be found. He ran his hand along the drawer top and then walked over to the bed and sat down on it, sending up a massive billow of powdery dust as he disturbed the surface and sent all the dust that had been there for many years.

"He grew up here… How does a hero come from this?" Lector asked, gesturing to the mostly empty room. Saria walked into the center of the room and tapped the center of the floor with her staff, muttering something in ancient Hylian beneath her breath and as if the room had become possessed, everything changed. The windows flew open and light filled the room and the dust was all sucked out the windows and the room instantly felt cheery and bright. Saria set down her staff on the dresser and then walked over and sat on the bed next to Lector.

"I am the sage of the forest, I understand many things that normal people never could, it has changed me. I didn't think it was possible he was a hero either, having known him for most of his childhood I thought he was only special to me. Now I see that he is special to everybody and there is absolutely no good reason it couldn't have been somebody else." Saria replied. She leaned back and looked up so she was looking out the window over his bed upside down.

"What does that mean?" Lector asked. He turned so he was facing her and he green eyes turned away from the window and back to him, she grinned at some inward memory and then spoke.

"That there doesn't need to be any good reason… it means that anybody with something good to fight for can be a hero. You seem like you've got something to fight for, I'd assume you've done some heroic things too… Everybody can be a hero; just some don't get a chance to be heroic." Saria answered. She stood up and took one last look around the room before walking over to the door.

"It may have been a few years but this is still his house, I don't think we should be here." Saria stated. Lector nodded in understanding and stood, making his way out of the undersized house and going back the way he came, leaving Link's house once again in peace.

((()))

Navi's hibernation was short by Fairy standards. Normally a Fairy that had over drafted their powers by the amount she had would be asleep for a millennia, she woke up in three days. That was because in spite of her normally pleasant yet slightly annoying demeanor, she was really very old and had accrued much power over the years. There was a reason The Great Deku Tree had chosen her to be Link's companion, it was because she was far stronger and more intelligent than any other fairy. She was also one of the few that had actually left the forest multiple times across the years and as a result was the only fairy with a high level of knowledge of the monsters and geography of Hyrule.

Navi was also the last of the original Light Fairies to ascend into Great Fairy form. She had gained such a powerful control of magic from spending several thousand years as a Light Fairy that she had become the most powerful of the Great Fairies almost instantly. It was for this reason that she was to be the one to lead them to war.

"Navi, you are awake, rise" A voice beckoned. Navi instantly recognized it as that of The Great Fairy of Power. Navi's eyes immediately shot open and she saw the Great Fairy staring back at her. Navi instantly realized that she had retained her Great Fairy form as memories from the dungeon in the forest came rushing back to her. She slowly built up the energy in her currently weakened state to hover into a standing position.

"You used too much of your power battling the phantom. It will take many days for you to return to your full strength, but we cannot wait until then to begin your training, the war that shall engulf all of Hyrule in darkness is nigh." Power said.

"Where is Link?" Navi asked. Power pointed to the entrance of the fairy fountain where it was evident that a battle had occurred a few days before. Wreckage was strewn about and boulders that had once made the entryway were blasted out.

"Gannondorf had put this fairy fountain and all the others under a spell of imprisonment. Link dispelled the curse on this fountain but currently the others remain under Gannondorf's spell. For now I can teach you how to use this weapon." Power said while lifting from the waters of the fountain Navi's Sword. Navi reached out and took her sword back from the hand of Power and felt new energy surge through her body. She turned the sword in her hand and inspected the runes on the flats of the blade. They were potent spells written in the ancient tongue that would drive monsters away in fear. It was not as powerful an instrument of war as The Master Sword, but the fear the runes caused against the enemy was greater.

Navi held up the sword and it shone in the dim light of the chamber and Power grinned when she did so. Power pointed at the sword and snapped her fingers and it became charged with a red glow that filled the chamber with a strong humming noise that seemed to come from no particular place.

"I have charged your sword for you since you are weak right now. Point the sword at one of those boulders over near the entryway and will yourself to fire a beam of energy at it." Power commanded. Navi pointed the sword towards the blasted open entryway to the fairy fountain and closed her eyes, sensing the nearest rock and imagining a bolt of energy shooting forth from her sword in her mind. After a moment's hesitation there was an explosion of light and a beam of pure energy fired out of the end of her sword and hit the boulder squarely, blowing it apart with ease into a cloud of shrapnel.

"I did that?" Navi asked. Power nodded, hovering over to another boulder which she easily picked up and carried over to the fountain where Navi drifted waiting. Power set down the boulder and then touched the flat of Navi's sword again, filling it with more energy.

"Charging your sword will be the source of its power, any sword of mortal steel would melt if you tried to do this with it. Without charging this sword may as well be just another blade of many. When charged however it becomes a weapon worthy of a Great Fairy. Cut through this rock with it, charged as it is you will find it quite easy." Power said. Navi sliced at the rock with her sword and it split cleanly in half, the edges where it had been cut with her sword were smooth as if they had been polished and still glowed red with residual energy.

"How do I charge the sword myself?" Navi asked, noting that the glow had decreased significantly after cutting through the boulder. Power just shrugged her shoulders and pointed at the weapon in her hands.

"Its pretty simple, you just will it to be. It's the same as when you shot the sword beam over there; if you will it to happen then it will happen." Power replied. Navi focused on the sword and willed it to fill with energy and in moments a bright glow surrounded the blade, no longer the red magic of Power but now her own blue magic. Navi's energy continued to pour into the sword until the glow brightened from blue to gold and then pure white.

"Now! Unleash your magic! Destroy all the boulders!" Power shouted. Navi let out a shrill cry and willed the energy to fire forth from her sword. Rather than a single beam like before, she fired many shots, shooting and switching targets with incredible speed, the glow of her sword diminished with every shot but she managed to fire twelve before it ran out. She had aimed through closed eyes and instead of relying on sight had let her instincts guide the shots. Her instincts had served her well because every single boulder had been vaporized by her beams. She felt drained from having used so much energy but when she descended into the waters of the fountain it returned almost immediately and she felt stronger after.

So began a cycle of training. Power continually taught Navi new techniques and moves and gave her combat training and every time she completely exhausted herself she would return to the fountain for only a minute or two to regain her energy. Every time they did this she got stronger and it continued for many hours. Over the night and into the next day and Navi's power grew as she continually exhausted and regenerated her energy.

Finally, after a straight twenty-four hours she had become so powerful in magic that Power was having trouble keeping up with her and could no longer train her any further. So they proceeded into non-magic combat techniques. Power summoned forth from the fountain every weapon ever used on Hylian soil. Not just the weapons of friends, but Gerudo scimitars and Moblin spears and many other weapons that would be wielded by the enemies of Hyrule in the battle that would decide the fate of their land. Power tediously trained Navi to use any weapon she might possibly pick up and how to fight against an enemy carrying any of the arrayed weapons in any combination and after another solid day of work Navi was an expert.

The third day was devoted to the workings of defensive magic and spells that were not directly relatable to combat. Navi became a master in the use of magical shields and knocking arrows out of the air with her mind. Many other things were learnt over the course of a week. Magical attacks, battle meditation, more combat training. By the end of her week in the fountain of The Great Fairy of Power, she had learned every combat skill she would need in order to wage war against the armies of Gannondorf. There were other skills she would need as well though if she were to lead the fairies to war, skills that the Great Fairy of Power could not give her. For now she had to hone the skills she had already been taught and wait for Link to free another of the Great Fairies to allow her to move on to another mentor. Navi was doing the one thing she hated most…

… Waiting.

((()))

_They say blood is thicker than water… what does that make ice?_

These were the musings of a wanderer. She did not travel by any road known to Hylians, rather she flowed one with the river allowing it to carry her away from the place that she had once called home, a place that was now all but dead. She had been dead with her kind, but there had been a great explosion and the ice about her had cracked, setting her free. As it were she could not swim on her own yet, being encased in ice had weakened her to fragility, she did not swim, only let the river take her to where she wished to go, the one place where there was no chance the water would ever completely freeze.

The Zora River followed the east and northern borders of Hyrule field for fourteen leagues, at that point the river passed beneath the red cliffs and into the caverns which passed through many miles of tunnels that had been smoothed by the Zora people specifically for this purpose, so that they could use it to travel quickly to anywhere in Hyrule they desired to be with great swiftness and speed.

She wondered for a moment at why she was not under the ice like the rest of her kin. She had passed into shadow and for an unknown amount of time was unknowing of the world and then was brought back into it by a flash of light and heat that vaporized the ice encasing her. A woman of the Sheikah had freed her, though she had not spoken with or seen much of her. She didn't even know her name. The Sheikah had freed her though, and then disappeared before she could be spoken too, as if she were in need of great haste.

If it weren't for the Sheikah woman, Princess Ruto of the Zora would be dead. Even now she drifted out of the Zora river valley and into the perimeter of Hyrule field where she drifted on the current for one and a half days before reaching the tunnels at the North West edge of the fields. The tunnels swallowed the princess as if she were a ritualistic sacrifice to an ancient heathen god and for many hours until nightfall of the second day she was carried through them by the current. After two solid days of living out the life of flotsam and jetsam, she reached the edge of the caverns, where the temperature rose too much beyond her comfort level. This was the outlier of the journey, a place that did not belong. It was the entrance to the desert; the river had carved the Gerudo Valley just as it had formed the home of the Zora many thousands of years before they even existed.

Ruto was still too weak to execute a dive so instead just curled into a tight ball and let the current take her over the edge to whatever awaited at the bottom. Thankfully, the bottom of the waterfall had been carved by millenniums of pressure from the waterfall and was deep enough that she did not hit bottom. From there she was carried two more leagues through the Gerudo valley over two more waterfalls until she passed out of the valley and into what should have been Lake Hylia. But it was no lake she met, rather a wall of solid stone and concrete mortar.

The river had been dammed and the water level of the lake beyond it had diminished to the point where there was hardly a lake anymore. Ruto was unsure who had built the dam but it was most certainly not of Hylian or Zora creation. The blocks were carved from the red rock of the Gerudo Valley and Ruto knew immediately where it had come from. The river had been dammed by the Gerudo. The reason for this she could not tell, but the water levels had seemed higher than normal in the Gerudo valley, perhaps it was for resources. If the Zora domain had not been frozen then it would have not worked to build a dam this close to the end of the river. But very little water flowed from the pool at the top of the Zora River Valley; hardly enough to constitute a stream, and the rest was just run off from rain in the valley and the fields.

Ruto backed about a hundred feet up the river and then charged at the dam with all the speed she could muster, leaping out of the water at the last moment and flying in a spiral over the top of the dam. She looked down as she passed over the dam and saw a few tents and a dozen Gerudo warriors sitting around and generally maintaining the dam. None of them looked up as she was overhead but they all heard the thud of her hitting the muddy soil beyond. Hardly a trickle of water made it through and that was enough to create a slippery surface for her to slide down to the lake but not enough for anybody to drink. She saw the Hylian village on the edge of the lake had expanded and wells had been built by them to accommodate for the lack of fresh water from the river. The Gerudo leapt to their feet and began chasing Ruto with their swords drawn, knowing that no Zora were supposed to still be free of the ice, and Ruto used her fins to propel herself down the slope almost as fast as a horse could gallop.

Ruto reached what remained of the lake and instantly dove into its depths; for once she cursed the clear water of the lake, wishing instead for a murky pit that she could disappear into. The Gerudo lined up on the edge of the water and pulled out bows and began shooting arrows into the water aimed at her. The water warped their view and their arrows missed as a result but it was only a matter of time until one of them got lucky, she swam to the island that was now only fifty feet from the lake edge and retreated into the one place where she knew they could not hit her, inside the entrance to the Temple of Water.

The place was a spire; it rose up the center of the island at the center of the lake and stopped a few feet short of the surface. The water level was outside was reflected inside. The water temple was not full as it usually would be but rather had become just a sandy pit with a small pond no more than ten feet deep and thirty feet across at the bottom. Ruto descended the stairs to the bottom and looked around for any sign of other Zora. Any that were not frozen would have certainly come here to survive, that was the plan if the Zoras Domain was overrun or made uninhabitable, but a strange nagging in the pit of Ruto's stomach told her that she was the only one. Nobody else had escaped.

There was only one thing to do, she needed to pray to the Goddess Nayru to help them, the goddesses had never let down the Zora before, always in times of need they had sent aid and Ruto hoped they were not about to stop now.

The shrine of Nayru was at the back of the temple, she had never seen it before but she knew that was the place she had to go to reach the Goddess. She climbed back up the stairs and crossed a bridge to the other side of the temple to reach a long and winding labyrinth that lead through many chambers and hidden traps and ended in the shrine. As she walked she began to feel an odd dread in the back of her mind that she chose to ignore for the moment being. The oddness she felt grew though until she could not ignore it any more, something evil was following her. She flicked her wrists and the famous blade-like fins of the Zora that had long been their dreaded weapon rose from her arms and she prepared to fight.

"Who is there?" Ruto asked. There was no response; she continued walking cautiously until she reached a room that she thought would be the shrine of Nayru. But when she entered, she found it was just another chamber along the path, a large rectangular room with doors on either end. On the right side of the room there was a large boulder that served seemingly no purpose and in the center of the room there was a mound of sand with a small tree growing up out of its center, it would have looked like a tiny little island if there were water in the room.

Ruto began walking across the room and gasped in shock as the room transformed, the walls and ceiling became an overcast sky and the ground instantly and magically became covered in three inches of mirror like water. Ruto looked upon the room with wonder and when she reached the island she stopped for a moment wondering what purpose the room had served. She leaned back against the tree and closed her eyes, sighing and imagining for just a moment that she wasn't the last Zora alive, but that she and her people had found a place of paradise much like where she now stood. The illusion was shattered by the dread rising again in her mind and the feeling of cold steel pressed against her neck. It didn't take much knowledge of weapons to know that it was a sword and the man holding it was a Hylian.

"Sorry to intrude, but I have need of your services." The man said. She could sense pure evil behind his voice and the effect was so chilling it could freeze blood. Ruto bit the hand clamped over her mouth and jammed the fins on her arm back into whoever had grabbed her. At the same time she used her other hand to push the sword blade away from her neck and cried out as it cut across the palm of her hand. A booted foot slammed into her back as she tried to run and she fell down, turning over just in time to see a shadowy figure land on top of her. The man with the black face straddled her with her arms trapped beneath his knees and she was shocked to see that where she had hit him with her fins he was not even scratched. Zora fins were known to punch through plate armor and all he wore was a hauberk of chainmail just as black as everything else he wore and his skin. His glowing red eyes burned into her mind and Ruto experienced nothing but sheer terror as the man spoke.

"That was not so courteous. For that you must be punished. Tell me, how long can a Zora survive out of water?" The Shadow asked. Ruto refused to speak but it was obvious the shadow already knew.

"I believe it was twelve hours, give or take depending on how strong they are. How about we see how strong you are?" The shadow replied. He put away his sword and then with inhuman strength lifted her and bound her wrists over the lowest branch of the tree that extended out over the water so that the end of Ruto's flippers could barely touch the surface of the water, so close to what she needed but so far away. Ruto would be fine for a few hours but unless somebody showed up soon, she was going to die on that tree in the sacred water temple.

"Why are you doing this?" Ruto asked, struggling against the bonds that held her to the tree branch. The shadowy figure grinned and walked up to her, stopping with his face only inches away from hers.

"Because it pleases me" The Shadow said, he grabbed Ruto by the chin and before she could speak he planted a kiss on her lips that made a burning sensation spread through her face like being dipped in brimstone. Ruto screamed in agony as the Shadow grinned and walked away, the sensation of having her face lit on fire slowly faded away but Ruto's screams did not. The Shadow liked that, pain and agony made him happy.

"Consider yourself lucky, the one who I truly wish to kill should arrive shortly to rescue you. I'm going to let you enjoy watching him die." The Shadow laughed. And he continued to laugh as Ruto screamed and cried in pain and despair. The Zora princess had lost all hope of survival and that alone pleased Shadow Link more than any other single he could have done to her. In the end, that was what his real purpose was, to destroy hope, and he had just fulfilled his purpose. He laughed evilly as he walked out of the room and into the temple to allow Ruto to slowly die alone. She may as well have already been dead.


	31. The Untamable Horse

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

_**Notice: From now on all updates relating to this story will be at the top of my profile, the bold text has been removed from every chapter except for chapter 1 where a similar notice to this now exists. Thank you and have a nice day.**_

Chapter 31: The Untamable Horse

It had been an afternoon and a night since he had arrived at the ranch. Link had woken up very early, before Ingo but after Malon. The red potion had done well and most of the minor cuts and bruises were gone and the major ones had become minor ones, some of the thin white scars from other injuries had disappeared as well, the red potion restoring everything but her tortured soul.

Link in the meantime had been trying to figure out what he was going to do about Ingo, the former ranch hand who now owned the ranch. Ingo was violent and irrational and Link could imagine no method of sneaking Malon out of the ranch as well as one of the horses locked up in the stable without Ingo chasing and fighting to the death with him. Ingo was too foolish to know when to quit and the only way to get him to stop chasing Malon and him would be to kill him, but he couldn't kill him simply for being a jerk and causing a few injuries.

"… Are you still listening to me?" Malon asked. Link had been drifting off into thought but he still knew what she had said. She had been explaining how the Gerudo had run her father off the ranch and given her to Ingo as a slave. Link wasn't sure what all her slavery had entailed but he had a pretty good idea and he wasn't going to allow it to continue, he would find a way to get her out.

"Yes, please continue." Link replied. Malon knocked her head against the wall of the tower which they both sat leaning against. It was early morning and the stone walls of the tower glowed in the red sun rise. Link's sword and shield belt leaned against the wall next to him and he was happy to be for once without the encumbrance of his chainmail and tunic. While the weight had not seemed like much while he wore it, when he took it off there was an immediate and noticeable difference. His shoulders were sore from having such weight on them for an entire week and there were deep red lines from where the chainmail rings had pressed into his skin through his shirt and gambeson. Now he wore just his brown pants and boots and white shirt since there was little threat of anything attacking at the ranch and he had grown weary of the weight.

Link had noticed by this point in time that the clothes cleaned themselves over time, just as they repaired themselves when damaged. They were ancient and enchanted and magic powers made them virtually indestructible, just major damage would take a longer time to go away. He noticed this because after a week of heavy work and combat any normal clothes would have been disgusting but everything he had gotten from The Temple of Time was spotless.

"Do you remember that song I taught you? Back when my dad still owned this place?" Malon asked. Link nodded and pulled out The Ocarina of Time. Malon smiled when she saw it and began to sing the song. Her voice was hoarse from years of being mostly unused and lack of practice but it was still beautiful. Link lifted the Ocarina to his lips and began to play along and before he knew it they were both enveloped in the song. He did not know for how long they played but when he finally reached the end of the song he lowered the ocarina and there was a loud whinny from the barn.

"I have an idea! How much money do you have?" Malon asked urgently. Link pulled out his wallet and checked and saw a purple rupee, a few reds, and a mash up of blues and greens that totaled one hundred and fifty three.

"One fifty three, why do you…" Link started to ask but Malon interrupted him.

"Wait here!" Malon exclaimed. She jumped up and ran in the direction of the farm house and Link waited for her to return, trusting whatever plan she had come up with to work. Malon ran past the barn and over to the farm house which she quickly entered. She went up stairs to Ingo's room and ran through the door, startling him awake.

"What in high hell are you doing, woman?" Ingo shouted as she woke him up, he reached over his bedside looking for some large object with which to beat her but what she said next completely erased that thought from his mind.

"I know how we can get a whole lot of money!" Malon exclaimed. The ranch had been on hard times ever since the Gerudo take-over of Hyrule and money had been very short, money for things like cattle feed and new saddles and cows and real good food from Kakariko. Ingo sat up in bed and put his hand on his chin, listening intently to what she was saying.

"Alright bitch, you got my attention, speak" Ingo growled, still upset over being woken so abruptly but also interested in the prospect of getting more money. Malon walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed pointing out the window in the direction of the tower where Link sat still leaning against the wall.

"That man who wandered onto the ranch yesterday came because he needed a horse, but he does not have enough money to buy one. He lost his in a race at Kakariko a few months ago and has not had any practice since but it willing to race you for wagers until he has the amount needed to buy a horse at full price." Malon explained. Ingo grinned when he heard this lie.

"No horseman in Kakariko could ever beat me and Storm Rider… but he surely must know about me, why would he challenge me?" Ingo mused. Malon quickly put a stop to his musings by leaning in close to his ear and whispering to him.

"He has one hundred and fifty rupees. His only term is that he be given one day to work with the horse of his choice. Any horse but yours." She whispered. It worked, Ingo leapt to his feet with a greedy grin on his face, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of the small fortune he was about to make off the boy.

"Tell that idiot I accept." Ingo laughed. Malon turned and ran outside and back to Link as quickly as she could and dropped down to take a seat next to him against the tower where she had left him little more than five minutes before.

"You're going to have to beat Ingo in some horse races, you're going to earn the money to buy Epona from us and take her away from this awful place." Malon explained. Link grinned at the concept but at the same time it left out one very important detail, he had to get Malon out too.

"What about you, I came to get you out too." Link replied. Malon frowned and lowered her head when he said this. She didn't have a plan for that and neither did he.

"You're going to have to come up with that on your own, I can't help you there, but you have one day to learn how to ride a horse and I'll be damned if I'm going to watch Ingo win tomorrow. Let's go!" Malon exclaimed, she grabbed Link's hand and he grabbed his sword belt in the other as she pulled him up and dragged him towards the barn. Ingo had already gone there and unlocked the door and was doing everything to make the wager go exactly as stated so Link would have no room to complain about the results. Ingo was inside the barn with a smoking pipe in his mouth standing next to the stable of a massive grey charger with a black mane.

"This here is Storm Rider, he is my horse, all the others are fair game." Ingo stated. Link nodded to show that he understood and walked to the back of the barn while Ingo stepped outside and headed back to the ranch house to smoke and get drunk.

"Epona he keeps locked up in the back, he doesn't let her out much but she has still somehow stayed healthy." Malon stated. Link and Malon walked past the stables of the horses and cows and when the reached the back there was one lone stable with a solitary mood surrounding it that Link knew must have been where Ingo was keeping Epona. Malon opened the dusty bolt and drew it back and Epona's excited call came from the other side.

"Are you ready, Epona?" Malon asked. There was a horse snort from the other side and Malon grinned before flinging open the door. Inside the stable was a mess but Epona had managed to stay spotless. She nuzzled up immediately to Malon but was weary of Link until he pulled out the Ocarina and played the song on it. Link saw who he was register in the horse's eyes and it trotted up to him placing its head on his shoulder and rubbing against him in a friendly manner. Link patted the horse on its nose and he and Malon led it into the center of the barn where Malon got to work brushing his coat while Link did what he could to get the saddle ready.

Epona was extremely obedient and smarter than the other horses and knew to stay completely still while Link and Malon cleaned her and put the saddle and bridle on her. Link left his sword and shield in the back of the stable out of sight from the front and removed anything that was unnecessary weight save for his boots, pants, and white shirt. Within half an hour all the preparations had been made and Link led Epona outside to begin training.

Malon spent the first half hour just teaching Link the basics, how to mount the horse and hold the reins, then another half hour teaching him how to keep from falling and how to turn. The hour following the first was the rest of the basics and then at two hours she finally let him actually try riding to get a feel for it. She held the reins so he just sat on the horse and she led Epona around the corral once. Then once Link had a feel for the movements of the horse she handed the reins over to him and he circled the corral at low speed, each time he made a circuit of the corral he picked up the speed. First at a lazy saunter, then a walking pace, then a slow gallop. By the tenth circuit he was flying around at high speed and was having trouble keeping up with Epona. The horse was smart though and realized this and interpreted Link's commands before he even made them.

Within hours he was riding at high speeds and there was very little more he could learn from Malon. He still continued to ride for a while more before stopping at sunset to give Epona and himself a break. Ingo had been watching him earlier on and after seeing him hardly riding at a canter on the horse had laughed and walked off to do whatever it was he did in another part of the ranch. Link went back to the stables and Malon had brought him a large canteen of water and two apples. Link quickly ate it all while Epona went back to her stable and ate and drank the hay and water that Malon had left for her there. Malon stood and walked over to the door of the barn and looked out at the rapidly darkening skies outside.

"It's getting late; we can practice more in a few hours once Epona has had time to recover her strength." Malon stated. She walked out through the big doors at the front of the barn and waved for Link to follow her. Link stood and walked out of the barn and as an afterthought picked up his sword belt now that it was night.

"You won't be able to stay in the ranch house tonight like you did yesterday; there is a secret place where you can get a few hours of sleep." Malon said, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along to the ranch house and helped him gather all of his things from the floor and carried them outside. They walked past the barn and over to the old watch tower. Malon opened the door and inside was almost completely empty save for a few boxes.

Malon walked over to the far side of the main room of the watch tower and moved a box aside, revealing what appeared to be just another segment of wall, until she pushed on it and it swung inward on hinges, revealing a narrow tunnel and a small room on the other side. Malon waved for Link to follow her and then crawled through the tunnel with Link right behind her. On the other side they entered a small room hardly large enough to stand in with a window covered by a wooden panel. Malon opened the window and moonlight poured in through the opening, dimly illuminating the room. There was a blanket and a pillow against one wall but what surprised Link was the thing leaning against the wall of the room next to the window.

A short sword with a wooden sheath leaned against the window, it was obviously old and of Hylian make. Link picked it up and drew the sword, inspecting the heavily dented blade. It had obviously seen war before. Link tested the weight of the weapon in his hand and spun it around twice before returning it to its sheath and leaning it back against the wall just as he had found it moments before.

"A Sheikah woman gave me that about a week ago, she told me I would know when to use it, I'm hoping I never have to." Malon stated. Link nodded and opened the window, taking in the view of Hyrule field that it offered. It was a good view.

"I come here when Ingo gets really bad… he doesn't know about this place." Malon explained. She straightened the blanket on the floor and punched the pillow a few times before walking back over to the crawlspace that led back to the main part of the tower.

"How bad does Ingo get?" Link asked. A frown crossed Malon's face and her eyes got a deep look to them as she went deep into thought, some memories she wished she could keep but most of the recent ones she wished would go away. She looked up at Link with sadness in her eyes and for once he really understood what someone else was thinking.

"I think you already know the answer to that without making me say it." Malon replied. She walked up to Link across the room and her gaze flitted out the window.

"What happened to Hyrule?" Malon cried. She fell forward into Link's arms and buried her face in his shoulder; incoherent sobs making her entire body shake. Link, unsure of what to do helped her down to a sitting position and held her tightly in his arms. They stayed that way for several minutes; even after Malon ran out of tears and her eyes were red she remained curled against Link's chest, her racing mind stabilized by his steady heartbeat.

"Everything will be alright again soon, I promise." Link said after more than ten minutes of nearly total silence. Malon looked up at him with her red and puffy eyes and suddenly Link began to feel like he was going to cry as well.

"It will never be alright, even if the whole world were to become perfect right now, I would not be alright." Malon replied. She shivered and Link picked up the blanket off the floor next to him and put it over her shoulders to warm her up.

"I'm saving Hyrule, me and many others; everything will be back to the way it used to be." Link soothed. Malon crunched up into an even tighter ball when he said this and shook her head violently.

"It won't matter, not for me, nobody loves me. Do you have any idea how quickly I was forgotten, I haven't seen my father in years and he hasn't even sent anybody to check on me. The moment the war started all of my friends either ran or died and assumed I had done the latter. Nobody loves me." Malon cried. Link tried to think of what he could say to make things better and in the end he was not quite sure whether he regretted what he decided to say or not.

"I love you" Link replied. Malon's sobbing ceased and she looked up at him again with a confused look in her eyes.

"Then where were you for seven years?" Malon asked. Link wasn't quite sure how he could explain it that would make sense.

"I was asleep for a long time. When I took up The Master Sword my body and spirit were not ready, I was locked away in the temple of time until only a week ago." Link replied. Malon frowned and Link saw the disbelief in her eyes and knew it must have been impossible to comprehend.

"You mean, when you first met me, it was years ago for me but for you it has only been weeks?" Malon asked. Link nodded, glad that she had managed to get an idea of the mysterious events and time travel that surrounded him. By now she had stopped crying but her eyes were still bloodshot and red.

"That makes no sense… But I understand it." Malon replied, and then she closed her eyes and leaned back to rest against Link's arm. Link closed his eyes as well and leaned back against the wall of the chamber, letting the whistling of the nocturnal birds outside put him to sleep. His mind was calmed and his thoughts slowed until slowly he fell asleep. If he had opened his eyes he would have been in for quite the scare though, because a third figure had entered the room.

Sheik descended into the old cuckoo's nest through the open window and looked at Link and the sleeping farm girl. She wondered if it would be possible for him to save her from Ingo, knowing all the things that Link had done she did not doubt it for a minute. At the same time she felt something in the back of her mind, a strange feeling of wanting to switch places with the farm girl. That odd desire put horrible thoughts in her mind of ways to take her place and she quickly sent them away, instead going over to Link's equipment pouch and opening it to check on his supplies, making sure he had everything he would need on the road ahead. There was one thing he would need that he did not yet have and she herself had it in her pack.

Sheik pulled a blue tunic out of her pouch and carefully placed the folded edge into Link's hand; he stirred slightly in his sleep but did not wake. She pulled a sheet of parchment and a quill out and quickly scrawled out a note which she laid on top of the tunic. Sheik, then satisfied that she had done her job, stealthily returned to the window and left the same way she had come. Completely undetected just as she had been trained to do. The blue tunic had been difficult to find but saving Link a trip to Zora's domain would buy him time that Hyrule sorely needed.

Sheik disappeared into the night leaving Link and Malon asleep in the cuckoo nest where they stayed for several hours asleep. It was Link who woke first; the moment he woke he felt something grasped in his right hand and looked down to see the blue tunic there with a note attached to it addressed to him.

_To Link_

_Your next destination is Lake Hylia; there is great need of your strength there. Seeing as Hylians have difficulty breathing underwater I figured that this might be very useful to you. Be warned, it doesn't work as well if it gets holes in it so be safe, the last thing Hyrule needs is a soggy hero._

_-Sheik_

_(P.S: You two are cute when you're sleeping.)_

The personal note attached to the end of the letter sent chills down Link's spine, even though it was Sheik, he still didn't like the idea that somebody had been watching him while he was sleeping. He didn't stand up but instead reached over and grabbed his pouch from where it lay on the floor as to not disturb Malon's sleep. He stowed away the tunic and the note in his pouch and then looked out the window to try and figure out about what time it was. The moon was high in the western sky over the Gerudo desert; it was about one in the morning, probably close to when Malon wanted to get up anyways. He felt bad about waking her up but at the same time knew that if he didn't it could come back to bite him later. A short term inconvenience was better than a long term failure. He shook her lightly and her eyes blinked open.

"What time is it?" Malon asked.

"Time to train, we need to get in as much time as possible before my race with Ingo." Link replied. Malon nodded in understanding and slowly rose to her feet.

"Thank you for letting me stay here… I can hardly sleep in the ranch house; I'm always having to worry about what he might do." Malon said.

"Hey, technically it's your tower." Link replied with a grin on his face. Malon punched him lightly in the shoulder and then without another word crawled through the hole leading back to the main part of the tower. Link followed behind her and when they got out on the other side they pushed the boxes back to hide the entrance and then went out into the frigid early morning.

Malon and Link wasted no time in getting over to the barn and getting Epona out and ready to ride, they had left her saddle on because they had planned on getting out early and maximizing their time and it worked out great. They were ready to start working again after only fifteen minutes of preparations and Link began riding around the corral while Malon set up jumping fences. It took a while for her to get out the fences all on her own but when she was done Link had gotten plenty of warm-ups and was ready for whatever she could throw at him.

"Just give Epona the command to run faster and head straight for the fence, she'll take care of the rest, just hold on tight with your knees so you don't get flung." Malon instructed. Link nodded and then headed for the first and lowest fence she had set up, snapping the reins when they were about a hundred feet away to make Epona run. It didn't take much to get the horse moving, she charged with ferocity like Link had never witnessed from so peaceful a creature and at the last possible moment sprung off her back legs to fly high over the fence, well above what was necessary to clear it. Link continued this with progressively higher and higher fences until they had reached the maximum height of the adjustable fences. Link rode a few more laps around the inside perimeter of the farm as the edge of the sky began to tinge light blue with a hair of gold where the sun had begun to rise over the edge of Death Mountain.

"That's enough; you and Epona will need rest before you race Ingo." Malon instructed. Link dismounted from the horse that Malon proceeded to unsaddle and prepare for a short respite while Link slept. Link walked back over to the tower and went back to the abandoned cuckoo's nest where he spent a minute looking out the window at predawn Hyrule field before laying down in the corner with the blanket atop him and the pillow behind his head. It took him hardly any time at all to fall asleep with the amount of work he had done over the course of the night on very little sleep as it were.

Malon herself was quite busy however and would not be getting any more sleep. Her priorities involved keeping Ingo from getting any sort of warm up while simultaneously delaying the race for as long as possible to give Link time to rest. She did this by 'accidentally' burning breakfast so she had to cook it again and kept the heat low so it would take longer to do. This was followed by tripping on the doormat and landing so a horse brush in her hand scraped his shoes which he proceeded to make her shine. She continued throughout the morning to take too long to do her chores but stayed just active enough that Ingo wouldn't have any cause to hit her.

Her plan worked out wonderfully. Ingo didn't make it to the stables until an hour after he had planned and by Link had already gotten an additional four hours of sleep with more than fifteen hours of practice over the last day. Malon left to go wake up Link the moment Ingo had finished with the last of her delays and within half an hour Link was ready to ride just as Ingo finally finished saddling his horse.

"Half an hour of warm up, then we race." Ingo stated when Link showed up.

"Shall we put down a wager of fifty rupees on the first race?" Link asked. Ingo grinned greedily and shook his head 'no' which confused Link greatly until he heard what Ingo had to say.

"Fifty? Bah, I should say we bet every rupee you have against whichever horse you have managed to scrounge out from my stable. All or nothing as it were." Ingo replied smugly.

Link accepted this graciously, though he pretended to be unsure of his decision, and spent the half hour of warm up riding in laps at a moderate speed around the corral and jumping low and medium height fences. It was nothing that would tire out Epona but just enough to get her warmed up for the race ahead where he needed her to do her absolute best. Link was ready himself with more sleep than he had gotten since he had set out from The Temple of Time and after spending the last week literally fighting for survival there was no way he was going to let a disgruntled ranch hand stand in his way.

Quickly the hour came when the race was to begin. The track was the perimeter of the ranch which had been set with multiple fences of varying height and difficulty. Ingo sat perched upon a menacing looking grey horse while Link sat upon the majestic palomino Epona. The starting line was the entrance to the ranch and the only barrier was the ancient wall that surrounded it. Link noted as they approached the line that Ingo held in his hand a whip which he quite evidently intended to use on his horse. Link only hoped that he didn't intend to use the whip as a weapon as well, if he did he would have no choice but to retaliate.

"Are you both ready?" Malon asked. Link and Ingo both responded in the affirmative and Malon pulled a white handkerchief from her pouch.

"Alright then, I'm going to drop this on the count of three, the moment it leaves my hand the race starts. There will be no crossing of the ranch wall and no physical attacks against each other. Other than that there are no rules." Malon instructed. Ingo and Link both understood but Link knew he was the only one who didn't intend to bend those rules in some way or another. Link and Ingo edged as close to the line as they dared and Malon lifted the handkerchief up over her head.

"Three" Malon counted. Link tightened his grip on the reins and shifted in his saddle to get a better grip on Epona's sides with his knees. He glanced over at Ingo and saw that the knuckles on his left hand around the grip of the whip were white as his palm dug into its leather surface. Link braced himself knowing that unarmored and unarmed that whip would be a formidable weapon to contend with; if Ingo decided to play dirty he would be in for an excruciating experience.

"Two"

A ringing filled Link's ears and nothing on the outside world mattered, only winning the race; it was at that moment that he knew nothing was going to keep him away from victory. Ingo saw this and his grip got so tight that he felt like his hands would fall off from lost circulation.

"One"

Before the handkerchief even fell Link and Ingo were both whipping the reins, because by the time the horses stepped forward Malon's hand was open and the small square of fabric descended towards the ground. The race had begun.


	32. Race Against Time

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

**Note: For anybody who didn't read this past chapter, there will no longer be any bold text at the top of chapters; this is the last note of this.**

Chapter 32: Race against Time

Link and Ingo charged the moment the handkerchief left Malon's hand. Ingo immediately set about whipping his horse and forcing Storm Rider to run and Link used kind words and soft but interpretable signals to coerce Epona into a hard run. Link could tell that Epona knew what she was doing and so he let her control what they did unless he thought he had a good idea which he would suggest with a light tug of the reins.

They reached the first fence which was set up about a sixth of the way around the perimeter of the ranch. It was a low fence and both horses jumped it easily though Link's inexperience caused him to get jostled a bit when Epona landed. He quickly recovered his seating on the horse and Epona recovered the few inches lost by it. Link could feel that she was holding back and staying just a few feet farther back than Ingo alongside him so he could not pull in front of them but also would feel that he was winning. The second fence was higher and this time Link was ready for it and didn't get jostled quite so much by it. As the curve around the ranch sharpened the fact that Ingo was on the inside of the curve began to show as he began to pull further ahead, though not far enough that he could cut in front of Epona.

Link leaned down closer to Epona's back and held on as the pace of the race quickened and mud began to fly up all around them. The third fence was the highest yet and Link saw that Ingo's horse had trouble leaping over it; Link put his face next to Epona's ear and whispered to her that Storm Rider had trouble jumping as they passed the back of the ranch which marked the half way point of the race. While many people believe that horses can't understand the languages of sentient beings, Epona proved this otherwise because on the fourth jump she nudged Storm Rider with her nose just enough to distract her and the horse barely made the jump, stumbling a bit on the other side which resulted in a harsh whipping from Ingo.

Link and Epona pulled ahead slightly on accident when this happened and Link saw the shock register in Ingo's eyes before he began whipping his horse harder and forcing the tortured horse to run faster still, passing Link and Epona who slowed down to allow it. By now they reached the fifth jump out of six and it was even higher than the previous four, which lead Link to assume that the sixth one would be the highest of them all. Just as they reached the jump, Ingo twisted his reins to the left and Storm Rider slammed into Epona, her flank nearly knocking her over and a heavy hoof slamming into her side.

Epona was caught off guard by this sudden and violent attack and was knocked over, rolling down the side of the hill and twisting one of her hooves and landing on Link's leg. Link cried out in pain as his leg was crushed under Epona's weight and he wondered if it had been broken, he didn't hear or feel a snap. Epona was also quite obviously in pain but she wasted no time in leaping back up and charging forward on a twisted leg. She lifted her back left leg higher than the others and it hardly touched the ground as she ran and even on only three legs she managed to nearly catch up with Ingo by the time they reached the final fence.

Storm Rider leapt the fence and his rear hooves hit it with a painful cracking noise but it didn't seem to affect the horse's performance aside from slowing it down for a few moments on the other side when it landed. Epona on the other hand managed to leap high over the fence with ease and charged with all her available speed. Ingo had attained an incredible lead with his dirty racing and as a result had become smug and didn't even pay attention, not noticing that Epona was right behind him until Link soared past him less than a hundred feet from the finish line. Ingo roared in rage as Link passed him and began violently whipping the backside of his horse but it was no use, by the time he reacted Link and Epona were already across the finish line. It was over.

The race around the entirety of the ranch had taken hardly under two minutes; Link dismounted his horse just as Ingo crossed the finish line screaming in rage. He dismounted as well and began slapping Storm Rider relentlessly with the whip.

"Useless shite horse!" Ingo roared in anger. He whipped Storm Rider several more times before Link caught his hand, refusing to allow the abuse to continue.

"It was just a race; you didn't even like the horse I took." Link stated. Ingo turned towards him with such anger that Link could imagine flames licking out of his eyes.

"You don't understand! Nobody could tame that horse! The Great Lord Gannondorf wanted that horse and now I have lost it! He will destroy me!" Ingo shouted. He grabbed Link by the shoulders and shook him violently. Link shoved him away and pointed accusingly at him.

"If you couldn't bear to lose you shouldn't have made the bet!" Link retorted. Ingo buried his face in his hands and began crying about how he was going to be killed and Gannondorf would burn the ranch to the ground and kill all his horses and all his cows. Even more infuriating was that he didn't mention the fact that Malon would be killed too. Just at that moment, Link got a crazy idea.

"Perhaps another wager then. I'll bet my horse… against everything. I will bet my horse against your entire ranch and everything on it." Link stated. Ingo gritted his teeth and his face turned a dark shade of purplish red as a fiery wrath burned behind it.

"That's hardly fair! No horse is worth an entire ranch!" Ingo bellowed. Link grinned smugly when he said this.

"You just said yourself that this one is. You said that Gannondorf would destroy everything you have if he found out about it, and that he would kill you as well. I'm offering you a way out. If you win, you get this horse back, all the rupees of the original wager, and I will never breathe a word of this to anybody. If you lose, I will become owner of everything here. I will put you under my protection, I can send you to a place where the armies of Gannondorf could never reach, and you would be free. I do not believe in slavery." Link explained. Ingo was in a tough spot and was not doing a good job of hiding it. Malon who had been watching from the sidelines since the race ended slowly approached as Ingo thought, when he looked up his gaze turned first to Malon and then he looked at Link.

"What about my slave, if you don't keep slaves then surely you wouldn't want to take away my slave for yourself." Ingo pleaded. Link frowned at him and then looked over at Malon; winking at her while Ingo wasn't looking.

"I certainly wouldn't take her to be my slave… but I would take her to set her free. I said I don't believe in slavery and that means I take every opportunity to end it when I have the opportunity to do so. I will not allow you to keep her as a slave." Link replied. Ingo gritted his teeth and then looked up at Link with an angry fire in his eyes.

"Alright, on one condition." Ingo conceded.

"Name it." Link replied.

"This time… no fences. We race flat"

((()))

"Something tells me this isn't normal… call it a hunch"

A guard and his captain stood looking down into the well of Kakariko village. It was the guard who had spoken. He pointed down at the surface of the water which was frothing and roiling as if it were over a flame. Not only had the level of the water dropped by many feet, but it appeared to be dropping rather rapidly. At this rate it would only be a few days before the well went completely dry.

"What do you think… tell Sheik?" The captain asked, unsure of what would be a necessary course of action. The guard looked down into the well again and then up at the sky high overhead.

"Sheik isn't around right now; you know how she sneaks off all the time… Lector would probably be a better person to talk to about it anyhow; he does a bit more with logistics than she does." The guard replied. The captain nodded and walked off to go find Lector and tell him about the mysterious boiling well. The guard in the meantime set down his spear leaning against the edge of it and sat down so his feet were hanging over the edge. The village was quiet now that the civilians had all been removed and the only sound aside from the boiling of the well was a little bit of talking in the distance.

The guard swung his feet back and forth over the troubled waters and hummed a song under his breath, letting the sound of the roiling pit soothe his thoughts. He closed his eyes and before he even knew what had happened, a vice like grip closed around his neck. His eyes flew open and widened when he saw that there was nothing there but the grip remained. He opened his mouth to scream and reached for his spear but before he could see either action to completion the invisible hand merely twisted with unimaginable strength and shattered his neck.

The guard's helmet was knocked clean off his head with the force of the blow and then he was lifted and dragged down into the depths of the well. Minutes later the captain returned with Lector. For a moment he believed the guard had simply departed to return to his duties which still needed attending, that was until he spotted the helmet and forgotten spear at which point he and Lector both drew their swords and cautiously approached the boiling waters. When they looked down into the pit, there was no trace of the soldier aside from the leather cap worn beneath a helmet floating on the surface of the water and a spot of blood on the edge of the well.

_Come down… little… Hylian… commanders_

Lector and the captain leapt back at the sound of the deep and ominous voice which emanated from the depths of the well. There was a blurring of the air as something began to rise from the depths of the waters. The captain was too stunned to react but Lector was battle hardened and ready to do battle. He charged forward with his sword before him and slashed at the apparition in the air. The form was cloven in twain and from within it came a great many purple lights which swarmed the air. By now several soldiers had arrived to inspect the ruckus and were amazed by what they saw.

The purple lights which had been scattered condensed into one point where they made the likeness of a face. That face looked down and Lector and smiled with an evil grin that did little to disguise callous anger. Lector kept his sword drawn and pointed it at the façade before him.

_You are brave; Hylian, but braveness shall not suit you for long… Beware_

The form began to emit a booming evil laugh that seemed to echo off the mountain and fill every corner of the village with an inescapable doom. Lector lowered his sword and sheathed it as the face descended into the well but the laughter continued. The moment the face was gone from sight there was a massive splash and the boiled body of the dead guard flew up out of the well and flopped onto the ground at Lector's feet. The cackle increased in volume until every soldier in the area felt as if their ear drums would burst and wondered if it would ever end. They began to scream and cover their ears but it did nothing to block out the cursed noise.

Then, as suddenly as it had all begun, it ended. The laugh faded away and the village was as quiet as a grave. The soldiers who had fallen to their knees slowly rose and some of them raised weapons in anticipation of an attack from the well, but no attack came, they were left completely alone in a deserted village, like cattle waiting to be slaughtered. Lector turned to the soldiers who had gathered around and swiftly ordered them to return to their posts, there was nothing they could do against this new devil that had decided to make them its enemy. He wondered if even Sheik had a method for battling such a powerful demon. One thing was entirely certain, without the help of a hero they were certainly doomed.

Lector swiftly made his way to the tower at the center of the town and climbed up to its top, looking out over the entire village and Hyrule field beyond. Somewhere out there The Hero of Time was working towards the freedom of Hyrule, completely unaware of what was happening at the village. Lector knew it would be selfish to seek out Link to save his one small village while he was certainly out and busy freeing Hyrule and so he decided not to do it. He could only be in one place at a time. If only they had more time…

((()))

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

Ingo's rage was unparalleled, Link almost felt bad for winning… almost. The race had been much closer and Ingo had very nearly made the mistake of attacking Link with his whip during the race, but had for once made a wise move and not done it. During the race Malon had gone back to the hiding place and gotten Link's weapons and the sword Sheik had left her just in case Ingo decided to oppose the bet, Link could see the hilt of the master sword protruding from behind the edge of the wall surrounding the ranch.

Ingo leapt off his horse and began attacking it savagely with the whip. Link ran and stepped between Ingo and the horse taking a hit from the whip across the shoulder as a result. Ingo was so enraged that he didn't even notice and he swung the whip again. Link caught it and it left a deep cut across the palm of his right hand but he was unfazed, he yanked back and ripped it from Ingo's hand.

"That is enough" Link growled. Ingo gulped and the fear of being attacked by Link seemed to sober him up enough to accept responsibility. He lowered his face towards the ground and slowly turned to walk back to the ranch to collect his things. The horse was in pain but not badly injured by the whip, which was good because Link would be liable to exact revenge on the deranged ranch hand if he had caused serious injury to the animal.

It took Link a few seconds himself to comprehend what had just happened as well, he was now the owner of Lon Lon ranch, he had won. Ingo brushed past Malon and very nearly knocked her over but she didn't care, she was free. She waited until Ingo was out of sight to turn and face Link.

"Link…" She started. She seemed to be struggling for words, and for the lack of them she did something completely unexpected. She rushed forward and grabbed Link in a tight hug and her lips locked onto his. Link's eyes widened in shock and surprise but he went along with it, returning the embrace. They stayed that way for several moments locked in a close embrace before Link stepped backwards and looked at Malon in a different light.

"I'm sorry." Malon apologized. Link grinned and looked at the ground, his cheeks turning bright red.

"It's alright, I just… I can't show that I care about people right now. Not you or anyone else, not until my quest is done. Gannondorf is cunning and if he knows there is anyone I care for then he could use it to destroy me." Link explained. Malon nodded in understanding as Link picked up his sword bandolier and the weapon Sheik had given Malon.

"So, you don't… love me?" Malon asked. Link frantically waved his hand and shook his head when she said this.

"No, I didn't say that, I said that I need to wait until after my quest is done to allow myself to love anyone." Link replied. Malon breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, so you'll come back, right?" Malon asked. Link nodded.

"The ranch and everything on it are yours, you're free now, I'm going to need to borrow Epona for a while though. I promise I'll come back." Link replied. Just as he was about to say something more, he heard a roaring sound in the distance and spotted a mob of something green and black moving across the field from the direction of Hyrule castle. His gaze shifted towards Kakariko and he saw a second formation heading towards them from there as well.

"Gannondorf must have gotten tipped off that I was here, he's sending a task force our way, I can't see it all that well at this range but…" Link started. Before he could finish the Triforce of courage on the back of his left hand glowed bright and his sight zoomed in closer to the enemy force crossing the field. Lizafos with axes on their tails and swords in their hands were charging at high speed across the field, there were at least sixty of them and behind them was a formation of thirty Moblins in black armor, he was outmatched, even with his the vast skill and power granted to him by the Triforce of Courage he could not fight a force of nearly a hundred enemies on his own in open battle.

He looked to the east where he had seen the force moving from Kakariko, fifty knights in full armor with lances, swords, and shields rode across the river and were approaching rapidly, but they were nearly twice as far away as the dark army and barely more than half their number. Link doubted they would arrive before the enemy would.

"They'll be here in maybe twenty minutes; I need your help getting suited up." Link said. His vision turned up to the top of the black tower where Hyrule Castle formerly stood. A shadow loomed upon the top of the tower and in its hand it held a glowing red sword. Link shuddered as he felt the energy of the Triforce of Power attacking his mind; Gannondorf was watching and was trying to hinder him.

_Just a little scrawny rat… heh, heh, heh, no match for my soldiers._

Link forced Gannondorf out of his mind and while he didn't have the strength to attack him the Triforce of Courage was strong enough to keep the Dark Lord out of his mind. Link retracted his vision and the glow of the Triforce on his hand dimmed. He tossed Malon her sword and the two of them ran towards the tower where the rest of Link's things were waiting.

"I may have to use this yet." Malon shuddered, holding the sword in its sheath tightly in her right hand. Link said nothing as they ran to the tower and threw aside the boxes, revealing the small tunnel on the other side. Malon scrambled through the tunnel and began throwing Link's things through to him which he quickly began to layer on over what he already wore. Within minutes Link had all of his weapons and armor layered on and ready for combat.

"Stay back here; don't come out until you know it's safe." Link ordered. He then grabbed the boxes and replaced them as they had been over the tunnel. When he was sure she was well concealed behind the boxes Link turned and ran out of the tower, back towards the entrance to the ranch. Epona had followed him and Malon back to the entrance of the tower and now Link leapt up onto the horse's back. Epona understood what was happening but did not know fear as other horses would, she was ready to take her new master into battle, even against impossible odds.

Link rode to the front of the ranch and into the entryway where the enemy force was now only a few hundred yards away and approaching fast. He pulled his bow out of his pouch and began shooting, taking out the lead elements of the enemy force as quickly as he could reload his weapon. He managed to shoot nine shots and kill nine enemies before they got so close that he had no choice but to retreat further back into the ranch. He put away his bow and drew his sword and shield as the massive roaring force pursued him into the ranch. Link rode into the large open center of the ranch and began riding around the enemy force, hacking away at any enemy that stepped out of the formation. The Moblins began throwing spears at him and some came very close but he managed to get six more kills before the enemy was focused enough to hit him. He raised his shield as a spear flew straight for his chest. The attack was deflected by the shield but he was almost unhorsed in the process. The enemy swarmed towards him and forced him towards a corner with no way out. With only moments to make a decision he took the only escape route possible, he turned Epona around and aimed for the outside wall of the ranch.

"Jump that!" Link ordered before snapping the reins. Epona gave a wild neigh as a spear hit the ground to their right and charged forward faster than Link thought was physically possible. Link closed his eyes so he would have to see what would happen if he hit the wall but that didn't happen. Epona leapt high into the air and Link braced for an impact that didn't come. Several seconds passed and then there was an incredibly loud thud as Epona's feet hit the tall grass and packed earth of Hyrule field. He opened his eyes and found fifty lances pointed at him with the Hylian force having formed an arch around him with no way out.

"Link! We thought you were one of…" The captain of the force started.

"No time, we have to get into the ranch now!" Link ordered. The captain didn't hesitate to follow Link's lead as he rode around the perimeter of the ranch where the races had been earlier that same day and up to the front entrance where the enemy had formed a phalanx to keep him out. Link drew his bow again and fired arrows from horseback as the Hylian force charged towards the numerically superior enemy. Link managed to get off four arrows before he had to switch to his sword and formed a small hole in the enemy phalanx which he charged straight towards. By the time the enemy had figured out what he had done it was too late for them to do anything. Epona charged through the hole and trampled all of the undefended enemies that got in their way. The Master Sword cleaved through flesh and bone and a trail of the blue flames of disintegrating monsters followed in its wake. The Hylians pushed through the gap Link had formed and formed a wedge that divided the enemy force in two. The battle at the entrance to the ranch had been won but Link had noted that the number of enemies killed was less than the number he had seen enter the ranch.

Once they reached the center of the ranch Link dismounted with his sword and shield drawn and began to look around for where the monsters could have possibly gone to. There was a commotion from the direction of the tower and Link realized in dread what must have happened. Malon had been found.

"That bitch bladed me! Kill her!" A deep growling voice shouted from inside the tower, the door was thrown open and A few Lizafos and a Moblin that appeared to be their commander stepped out. The Moblin quickly surveyed the situation and then tightened his grip on Malon who he held in front of himself with a massive black iron sword pressed against her neck. Link was too far away to do anything with his sword and if he even reached for his bow Malon would be killed.

"Surrender, or I blade her." The Moblin ordered. One of the Lizafos was holding a deep cut on its arm that bled green and in its hand it held Malon's sword which was stained with the same green blood.

"Link!" Malon shouted desperately, The Moblin clamped his hand over her mouth and her eyes widened as the blade was pressed harder against her throat, a thin red line had begun to form on her neck and if the Moblin pressed any harder, Link had to get rid of the threat now. He ran through his options in his mind trying to find one that suited him. None of the Hylians had brought bows, he wouldn't have time to draw his, he was too far to use his sword… or was he?

_I have blessed your sword with the Power of the Beam. If you will it to do so, your sword will be able to bring harm from great distance with this power._

He had completely forgotten about the power the Great Fairy had given him several days before, all he needed was a chance to point his sword at the Moblin.

"Why don't you fight me like a real warrior?" Link asked. Raising his sword and pointing it straight at the face of the Moblin almost a hundred feet away. He prayed his aim was as good as he thought it was and willed power to flow through his body and into the blade of the sword. The Moblin pulled its sword away from Malons throat and pointed it at Link as if he were about to make a threat and just as he did so, Link fired. There was a blast of heat as a beam of raw power shot from the end of the Master Sword and hit the Moblin square in the throat, separating its head from its body and killing it instantly. The Lizafos around Malon began to shriek in confusion and looked around to try and figure out where the attack had come from, unable to comprehend what a sword beam was. In the confusion Link charged forward and by the time they remembered him he was upon them and within moments the battle was over. Link had killed them all. The body of the Moblin had crumpled and landed on top of Malon but had quickly dissolved in blue flame and left her lying on the ground in shock.

"Are you ok?" Link asked. Malon didn't respond, just continued to lay on the ground hyperventilating and staring at the sky. Link reached down and picked her up and carried her back over to the ranch house letting a few knights go in first to make sure it was clear of enemies. The rest of the knights quickly cleared the ranch only finding two more enemies hiding in the barn which were quickly dispatched. Link laid Malon down on her bed and tucked her into the blankets and she just continued to stare blankly at the ceiling.

"Are you alright?" Link asked. No response.

"Can you hear me?" Link pressed. Malon closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Yes, I can hear you." Malon replied. Link breathed a sigh of relief when she finally responded to him and he pointed over at one of the knights who stood in the doorway of the room.

"These men are from Kakariko, they are Knights of Hyrule, they will keep you safe… Now you know how dangerous it is to be my friend." Link said. He felt his eyes beginning to water and so to not show weakness he stood up and turned away, walking over to the door of the room where the knight stepped out of the way to let him leave.

"I promise I'll be back, when my quest is done." Link said, and then he stepped out of the door and was gone. Out in the hallway he faced the knight who had been standing in the door.

"Casualties?" Link asked.

"Enemy threat reduced 100%, ninety confirmed kills including yours." The soldier replied.

"I know you know that I wasn't talking about the enemy." Link stated.

"Nine wounded, three horses killed… two men dead." The soldier answered. Link slammed his fist into the wall of the hallway, leaving a shallow dent in the plaster.

"Nobody should have died for a place. Especially one of such small importance." Link groaned. To soldier nodded and placed a gauntlet clad hand on his soldier.

"Sir, you've been taking a bigger risk than any of us and you didn't sign on for it. I've been told your story. You have the body of a knight and a hero but underneath you're still only a few days older than you were when you got that weapon. You're doing more than ever could have been asked of you. There is no greater honor than to die to help you on your quest. Those men were proud of what they did." The soldier replied.

"They're still dead." Link stated. He turned and walked down the stairs, stepping out side and moving on with his quest. He had work to do.


	33. An Unexpected Flood

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

_To My Readers_

_Today is the day the world ends, supposedly. Are you ready to read as the final hour approaches? You all have been with me for more than a year and a half now and I certainly don't think something as trivial as the apocalypse could drive you away and I thank you very much for deciding to read my story today rather than braving the hordes of those who would believe that today is the end of it all, who are likely flooding every store and crevice outside of your homes. I hope none of us meet with a terrible fate today, but unless the moon starts falling out of the sky I will continue writing and assume the world will spin onward. Here's to the dawning of a new day. Good luck with the apocalypse everyone._

_Oh, one more thing. If any of my readers are Mayan… F*** You._

**Warning: This chapter contains a gritty torture scene which may be disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.**

Chapter 33: An Unexpected Flood

It had only taken Link a few hours to get from the ranch to the edge of Lake Hylia by horse, on foot it would have taken a whole day to make such a trip, but now it was hardly past noon on the same day as the races had been won. Link had taken the riding easy and slow due to the minor sprain Epona had sustained during the first race against Ingo but had still travelled at nearly triple the speed that would have been expected had he been walking.

Link had not yet been to the lake, the week he had spent in Hyrule as a child had been on the eastern side of the kingdom and he had never gone further west than Lon Lon Ranch for the entirety of his quest. That all had changed today when he rode deep into the south west corner of Hyrule to the edge of the massive freshwater lake.

Well, it wasn't quite as massive as it had originally been. Link could see that somehow the amount of water in the lake had dropped far below what it had been seven years before. Link wondered what kind of sorcery could have made the fresh clean water of Lake Hylia become a muddy pit at the bottom of an empty crater. He looked around for some clue as he reached the edge of Laketown but without knowing visually exactly how the place had been before there was little he could do to figure it out by thought alone.

He reached into the pouch at his side and pulled out his map of Hyrule. The lake was pictured filling the entire crater and rising up to the very precipice of the island at the center which now looked like a lump of grain in an empty bowl. The map depicted the Zora river feeding into the lake after making a horseshoe shaped circuit of Hyrule before feeding into the lake from the north, running first through the Gerudo valley. Link looked over in the direction where the river should have been feeding into the lake and saw only a narrow stream winding down a ditch in the ground into the bottom of the lake.

Link followed the route of the water with his eyes and traced it up to the cliff wall where he spotted something that did not belong; there was a gap between two red stone cliffs through which the river should have flowed but instead there was a stone dam blocking the flow of water into the lake. Link was not surprised that the stone wall of only twenty feet was enough to stop the flow of water, the river was not incredibly deep and very little water flowed through it anyways because of the freezing of the Zora Domain.

At the base of the cliff on either side of the stream were a few tents of Gerudo design and a fire left untended. Link knew that the Gerudo were not dimwitted enough to leave a fire untended unless there was a very good reason for it. Link looked back down into the crater and saw several distant figures standing around the edge of the lake as if looking for something. A few of the Gerudo were holding bows and were shooting arrows into the water. Link wondered why the Gerudo were shooting into the lake and the Triforce gave him the answer. As had happened many times before his vision suddenly became sharper and his hearing far more precise and he could make out what they were saying.

"Where did that Zora even come from, they're supposed to all be frozen in their homeland." One of the Gerudo said. Link needed to know nothing more; he saw no Gerudo at the base of the dam and made a split second decision based on the lack of defenses around it.

He decided that he was going to destroy it.

Link urged Epona towards the dam and drew two bombs out of his pack, holding one in each hand as he approached the dam at high speed. He popped the fuse caps and threw the bombs at the dam, wheeling Epona around to head back towards safe ground the moment the bombs were out of his hands. Epona comprehended everything that was going on and made haste to the nearest safe ground as the bombs exploded. Link saw the Gerudo at the edge of the river spin around in surprise and begin shooting their short bows at him. The accuracy of a Gerudo short bow was not nearly good enough to hit Link and Epona at that range though and they failed to strike a hit.

The dam appeared at first sight to have withstood the blast but Link knew that it would not last long. The mortar between the massive stone bricks of the dam had cracked and the entire surface had actually begun to bow outward. A thin spray of water misted through cracks in the mortar and the pressure behind the water caused it to wear away the mortal around the gaps in seconds, increasing the size of the spray whilst weakening the structure of the dam. Nearly ten seconds after the explosions the dam made a great groaning noise followed by a sound like a million sheets of parchment being torn at once as the wall ripped free of the cliffs and toppled into pieces, releasing the long pent up river.

Water flowed from the valley to the river like blood from a wound and the Gerudo were wiped away by the blast of the river rejoining the lake from which it had been long parted. Even with nearly fifteen seconds of a head start Epona barely managed to outrun the blast of the river and reach the old shoreline where already a crowd had gathered to see what had happened.

"He freed the river!" Someone shouted, a completely obvious statement to anyone within earshot or view of the lake, but at the same time compelling to no end. A cheer went up among the crowd and weapons were drawn, when the Gerudo managed to get to shore the people of the village did not hesitate to take them prisoner and relieve them of their weapons, locking them in an old shed for the time being and posting a guard outside the door. Link meanwhile dismounted his horse and took off his outer tunic, replacing it with the blue tunic that had been given to him by Sheik while he slept.

"Where are you going?" One of the village children asked as Link began walking in the direction of the lake. Link turned to face the kid and then pointed down at the rapidly rising lake where the top of the temple entrance was hardly visible.

"Under" Link replied with a grin, then without any further words he walked straight into the churning waters of the lake and descended below the surface, disappearing entirely from sight in moments.

((()))

"So you're the one who has been helping the courageous rodent."

Sheik was not easily trapped; in fact, she had never been trapped before in her life. It had taken a fair amount of ingenuity and magic on the part of the Gerudo captain to make it work and had Sheik been as alert as she should have been she would not have fallen for it. For some reason she had decided to look when she heard cries for help coming from behind a boulder on the road to Kakariko from Lon Lon ranch. The trap had actually been laid out behind her, a wounded man who Sheik did not recognize had been placed behind the boulder and two Gerudo had sprung out at her. Mistaking this for the actual attempt to seize her she had disappeared into the shadow of a cave, exactly what the Gerudo captain had expected her to do. More than a dozen warriors had been waiting in the cave concealed from her senses by some form of magic powder sprinkled over them and the floor. The entrance was closed behind her and with only her dagger as a weapon and nowhere to hide she had no choice but to surrender.

"What do you want?" Sheik spat, the Gerudo captain stepped forward into the beam of light descending from the ancient airshaft. Sheik was in a sitting position with her back to the wall and her feet and hands bound together and weighted so she could do nothing to escape or attack, they really had taken every precaution to make sure she was completely incapacitated.

"Well, aside from your head which I myself happen to want very much, there's the little matter of finding some people of whom Gannondorf has great interest. Where is the Hero of Time and that cowardly Princess Zelda?" The captain asked.

"Well, if you want that kind of information, you're going to need to put on a ridiculous hat and do a funny dance for me. If you make me laugh I might tell you." Sheik stated in a voice completely devoid of humor. The Gerudo captain began laughing as well as a few nervous chuckles from her subordinates. Suddenly the Gerudo wasn't smiling anymore and she kicked Sheik in the face hard enough to knock her flat. A bruise began to form next to her left eye and blood spattered across the white cloth covering her face.

"On second thought… skip the hat, the dance should be plenty" Sheik choked around the blood in her mouth. The Gerudo captain smiled with an evil flame burning behind her eyes and knelt down next to Sheik who began struggling to move against her bonds.

"I'm going to get the information out of you one way or another, we are in a cave, there is no limit to what I can do down here." The captain said. She grabbed Sheik roughly by the arm and pulled her up to a sitting position again.

"Now, I will ask you again, where are they?" The captain demanded.

"Link is behind you." Sheik replied bluntly. The captain drew her sword and spun around to see nothing but an empty cave behind her.

"You should have seen your face." Sheik laughed. The captain rushed angrily at her and slammed the pommel of her scimitar into Sheik's neck, the tight bodysuit Sheik wore did little to protect her from the impact and the suit around where she had been hit began to darken with blood. Sheik was putting up a strong act but she knew that if she didn't find a way out quickly she would eventually be broken. She began trying to work out the bonds on her hands as the Gerudo captain sat down on her lap, straddling her with the sword held threateningly between their faces only inches apart.

"You are going to talk." The captain said, she pressed the blade against Sheik's shoulder and began to slide the weapon across her right arm. The sharp steel blade didn't have to cut through much before it reached flesh. Sheik's breathing sped up and she struggled to keep her mind calm enough to think about how to get out of the ropes as her flesh was cut by the sharp blade. The Gerudo steel traced a path down her arm from her shoulder all the way to her elbow and she began to feel dizzy as she saw her own blood staining the enemy's weapon.

"Isn't it pretty? There is a lot more where it came from, and I know all the best places to get it from." The captain threatened while admiring the blood collecting on the sword blade and on Sheik's sleeve. She pressed the point of the sword against Sheik's ribs and began to push between two of them. Sheik had thus far been maintaining her composure but the pain of having the scimitar forced into her ribcage was too much and she cried out in agony. The Gerudo was careful to not make the cut very deep, just through the tough flesh.

"Do you want to talk, or do I need to force my thumb through your ribs?" The Gerudo asked. Sheik was barely managing to keep herself from panicking as blood flowed down from the wound on her side. For a split second she considered telling them what they wanted to know about Link but she knew she couldn't do that on a clear conscience, she also knew they would do the same thing to him if they captured him in their ultimate quest to find Zelda, not realizing how close they were.

The Gerudo took Sheik's hesitation as a sign that she wasn't going to talk and pressed the tip of her thumb against the narrow cut, forcing the digit into the wound. Sheik had never experienced any pain like what happened in the next few minutes; the Gerudo pushed her thumb through the cut and into Sheik's chest cavity. She thrashed wildly against her bonds and couldn't even think clearly enough to tell them where Link had gone if she wanted to. At some point her thrashing loosened the ropes around her wrists and when the foreign body was removed from her chest she found that she could move her arms slightly, it only took a few quick motions after that which she disguised as writhing in agony to remove the bonds fully, now all she had to do was wait for an opportunity to strike that would allow victory.

"Obviously that wasn't enough for you; let's see how much you value your face. Obviously not a lot since you hide it behind that mask; I'm going to draw a nice big smile just for you." The captain said, dropping her sword and pulling out a short curved knife. She grabbed Sheik's mask and pulled it down and was shocked by what she saw, that momentary shock was all it took.

Sheik grabbed the Gerudo's hands, which were still wrapped around the knife, and thrust the hands and weapon into their wielder's own forehead. She rolled to the side as the other enemies began to rush forward and reached the satchel that had been taken from her, from which she took a deku nut and smashed it on the ground. The light was blinding but she was ready for it and while the Gerudo were still reeling from the blast she bypassed the entryway and used the narrow airshaft on the ceiling to escape.

Once she was out she ran faster than she had ever run in her life, a trail of fresh blood following her all the way to the gates of Kakariko village where she collapsed from a combination of blood loss and exhaustion. The guards quickly ran out and picked up Sheik, carrying her into the village to one of the army's medics. Sheik was alive, but she wouldn't be waging any battles any time soon.

((()))

Gannondorf ground his teeth in frustration. For years he had been trying to capture the heathen Sheik to find out more about his enemies, and just when she had finally seemed to be within his grasp something terrible happened and she was gone. This combined with the failure of his dark soldiers to take Kakariko a few days before was more than enough to make him outright furious at everything that moved.

He was smart enough not to kill any of his Gerudo warriors in rage, most of them had gone back to the desert against his orders when they realized that Hyrule had been a bite larger than what they could chew. Only a few hundred Gerudo remained on his side so he did not take his anger out on those who had stood by him. The first Lizafos he spotted when he stormed out of his throne room however was cheap and replaceable. Without any hesitation Gannondorf drew the white sword which he had stolen from the king of Hyrule seven years before and converted to a weapon of evil. He took the sword and rammed it into the gut of the dark creature. It let out a shrill screech and tried to reach for its own weapon but Gannondorf grabbed its sword arm and ripped it off with pure strength.

Gannondorf ripped his sword upward and the magic blade cut through the monster's armor as if it were nothing at all and it fell, its guts spilling on the floor. It twitched for a few moments before Gannondorf hacked off its head with his sword and ended it. A few other monsters had stopped to look in fear at what the Dark Lord had done and he looked up at them with eyes full of rage.

"Back to work or you are next!" Gannondorf roared. The creatures immediately turned away to avoid being singled out and the Dark Lord smirked, he liked being feared. Even feeling the fear of others though could not reconcile the fact that his warriors had failed him in every attempt to take Link and Sheik. He began pacing angrily around the ruins of what was once a monster as blue and green flames crept up around the edges of it and then engulfed it in a magic fire. The blue glow cast eerie shadows across Gannondorf's green face as he paced back and forth around the dead monster trying to come up with what he would do next… Nothing.

Gannondorf could not come up with one single scheme for taking out Link short of burning all of Hyrule till there was nowhere left to hide. He knew exactly where he would start, a place that he had left untouched for far too long. His minion under the well was rising and growing more powerful but that alone would not be enough to engulf all of Hyrule in death, his long waiting army would be set forth against the village of Kakariko.

Gannondorf wasted no time in descending the great stair that rose from the base to the peak of his tower all the way to the bottom floor where his generals and greatest minions dwelt. He found a massive Lizafos in black armor gambling with some underlings around a small fire eating something with a revolting stench out of crude wooden bowls and rolling dice to decide who would win the findings of an abandoned Moblin hoard. Gannondorf waited for them to finish their round, inspecting some of the treasures found in the forgotten dwelling of one of his minions. Most of it was Hylian, though a few artifacts appeared to have come from other lands as well. If Gannondorf had not been so focused on the singular goal of destroying Link and Zelda he would have found the items intriguing and may have even researched them to pass time. But for the moment he had more important things to do.

"My Lord! I beg forgiveness, I was not aware you were waiting!" The Lizafos general rushed as he jumped to his feet upon catching the Dark Lord in the corner of his eye. Gannondorf handed a trinket of solid gold that he had picked up back to the general and then motioned for him to be at ease. The creature relaxed slightly but it was obvious that he could not truly be at ease in the presence of Gannondorf.

"I have a mission for you, one that must be done two days hence. I want you and a band of your best warriors to ride to Kakariko and burn it. Do not battle the soldiers you find there unless you must, just destroy everything and then report back to me." Gannondorf ordered. The general saluted tersely and flicked his forked tongue in anticipation. For too long he had been waiting for the taste of Hylian blood and now Lord Gannondorf was giving it to him.

"It will be done master; it will be done with pleasure!" The Lizafos shouted enthusiastically whilst saluting his master. Gannondorf grinned, glad that he had such loyal soldiers.

"May I ask what the purpose of this raid is?" the general asked. Gannondorf wondered if he should tell him, he saw no reason not to in any event.

"The Hero of Time has long eluded me, but he will not ignore the burning of that village, he simply cannot, he will come and my minion beneath the well will be waiting for him when he does. He will be destroyed." Gannondorf stated with a smug grin on his face. The Lizafos flicked its tongue again and its slit-pupil eyes narrowed in thought.

"There is no greater honor than to be a servant of Darkness, but I would very much like to kill the meddler myself." The Lizafos said. Gannondorf shook his head, though he was thankful for the desire for Link's blood on the part of his minion.

"No, he must be unsuspecting, he must think that the battle is already over, there can be no warriors still there." Gannondorf said. The general's gaze dropped in disappointment and Gannondorf wished there was some way he could allow so loyal and faithful a servant to kill the hero, but he could not allow wishes to conflict with his needs, he needed the hero to be killed and if it had to be done quickly and painlessly than it would be done that way.

"Understood master, I will set out at night two days hence."

((()))

The water temple was not as Link had suspected it would be, he envisioned it being built the way the other temples had been built, but that was not the case. The last two temples had been constructed by the hands of land dwellers but this temple was constructed by the amphibious Zora people and since it was normally many hundreds of feet underwater it had not been designed with Hylians in mind.

Link had entered the temple through the front gate and swam through a water filled tunnel for only a few yards before reaching a dead end with an open ceiling. He swam upward, surprised that with the blue tunic swimming too had become easier despite wearing over seventy pounds of weapons and equipment, the tunic was enchanted with strong magic. Link's booted feet worked like Zora flippers and his hands behaved like the fins of a fish, but he still felt just as Hylian as he always did.

He climbed out of the water and onto a platform and the sight that confronted him was incredible yet at the same time completely horrifying. It was incredible because never before had he seen such incredible architecture and horrifying because he could see dozens of tunnels at varying altitudes just from where he stood and knew that he would likely need to navigate every single one of them.

The shape of the temple was like that of a wheel with an axle at its center, at least that was what it looked like as far as Link could tell. Not only were there tunnels around the entire perimeter of the circle but there were also doorways leading into the center column and Link wondered just how much of the massive temple he would necessarily need to go through to free Ruto and get out. No matter what he saw no way for it to be anything but a complete and utter nightmare.

"So this is the water temple… by the goddesses, who is the sick twisted fellow who designed this mess." Link said to himself. He almost forgot for a moment that nobody was around to hear him say that, Navi hadn't been with him since the forest temple. He wished he had her help right about now, her encyclopedic knowledge of Hyrule would be extremely useful in so twisted and tangled a maze.

Without any further delay, Link jumped into the water filling the central hub of the temple, there was an island jutting out from the main column like ribs and Link climbed up onto it to get a better look at the temple design. From his new position he could see all of the doors and tunnels in the area and only a few appeared to be open for travel. One at the bottommost level caught his eye, a hundred feet below the clear water on the side he had entered on was a tunnel that was not blocked and appeared to have a light current flowing through it.

Link jumped back into the water and let the weight of his armor carry him down to the bottom. One thing that was odd about being underwater was that everything sounded louder, that was why he was able to hear the shell blade coming from behind him, the clacking of the giant clam's top and bottom shells hitting each other as it propelled itself towards him was enough to give him warning to roll out of the way. He found that the weight of his clothing and armor was enough to keep him grounded as he would be on land but gravity acted different and all of his movements were slow in the fluid. He wasn't used to fighting in anything but air and solid ground.

As it was he managed to dodge out of the path of the razor edges of the monster's shell and drew his sword as it passed him, swinging at its back. Even the powerful and indelible edge of The Master Sword was not able to penetrate the monster's thick outer shell and sparks flew off it for only a split second before being extinguished by the cold water around them. Link tried to think of what other weapons he could use underwater and the only one he thought might possibly work would be the hookshot.

Link pulled out the device as the monster turned and opened its 'mouth' in preparation for another attack. Link's motions were slower underwater but the mechanical power of the hookshot was unchanged, there was a blast of bubbles as air trapped inside the machine was unleashed and the spear point on the end shot forth, crossing the space between Link and the enemy in mere seconds and hitting it right where he had aimed it between the two open shells. The clam was ripped apart from the inside out by the hookshot and fell to pieces.

Link realized he was breathing heavily and the question began to form in his mind, was he even breathing anything at all? He decided to do a quick experiment as he swam towards the tunnel; he simply held his breath to see if he really needed to breathe at all while wearing the blue tunic. Amazingly, he didn't feel any fatigue after more than two minutes of holding his breath and swimming down the tunnel, the tunic's magic was more powerful than he thought. Link exhaled so he wouldn't have water in his lungs when he started breathing again and then simply just did not breathe as he continued onward through the twisting corridors of the dungeon.

The tunnel ended up being a dead end but he did find a chest with a key inside at the end of it which meant he now had access to other parts of the temple that he had been able to see from the main area but not reach. He put the key in his pouch and swam back to the main area, finding it once again surprisingly empty of enemies, perhaps it was because the temple had been completely sealed from the outside and the water had acted as an additional barrier for anything trying to get inside.

Link left his sword in its sheath on his back and rather held the hookshot in his hand; it was his primary weapon now. He swam back up to the surface and at the back of the chamber spotted a door that seemed more prominent than the others that his key would open. He immediately took it and found himself in a tunnel that wound back through the temple.

As he began walking towards the back of the temple he began to feel lightheaded and realized that he had not started breathing again when he surfaced a minute before. He inhaled deeply and breathed heavily for a few moments to clear his head before continuing to walk down the tunnel. Apparently the breathing magic of the tunic only worked underwater. The tunnel wound around and went through countless chambers and Link began to lose his way but always he kept going along the most obvious path since that would likely lead to the deepest part of the dungeon and ultimately Ruto.

Finally Link reached a room that was different from the others. It didn't look like a room at all. A door seemed to stand in emptiness on the other side and an overcast sky was over his head. To his right was a large boulder and to his left was a tree. The thing that caught his attention though was that a Zora who he easily recognized as Ruto was hanging by her hands from the branch, the tips of her toes barely not touching the water.

Link didn't think as he ran forward to cut her down from the tree and that was nearly his downfall. As he got nearer he saw that her eyes were glazed over and her gills were hardly moving, she was going to die very soon if he didn't help her.

"Link… behind… you…" Ruto warned. Link realized it was a trap and without stopping he drew his sword and spun around in an arc, the blade should have logically passed through empty air behind him since there was nobody else in the room but that was simply not the case. A loud ring echoed through the chamber as steel met steel and Link found himself face to face with his antithesis.

"Oh dear, it would appear my trap didn't work, isn't that a shame. It would seem things must be handled in the old manner." Shadow Link said, he took a step back and the sound of his sword sliding against Link's rang through the chamber. The doors to the room faded from existence and Link knew that this would be the last time the two of them met in this world, which one of them would survive had not been decided yet.

"One of us will end here, Shadow, I have no intention of it being me." Link said. He was doing a good job of masking his rage but he wasn't sure how much longer he could contain it. He knew he needed to stay calm and collected if he wanted to defeat so intelligent and evil an opponent.

"Yes, I have been looking forward to this for a long time. I will make your death slow so the pleasure of it lasts. Like hers… her death is giving me much pleasure." Shadow Link replied. They had been circling each other in the center of the room with their swords pointed at each other and as if mirroring each other they both reached behind their backs and pulled out their shields.

"Let's not talk; we're both here for the same thing. Let's be done with it." Link growled. Shadow Link said nothing and made no noise, but one moment he was standing completely still and the next he charged forward with unmatched ferocity. The final battle of Light and Shadow had begun.


	34. Light and Shadow

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

**Note: Do Not use this as a guide; the methods of killing some of the bosses are changed. I do not know if my strategies would actually work or not but if you try them you're gonna have a bad time.**

Chapter 34: Light and Shadow

The ringing of steel on steel filled the chamber as Link clashed blades with his converse form. Neither one of them was holding back anything and their swords flashed against each other so fast that normal eyes could not track them. They were completely evenly matched and neither one of them had any apparent advantage, this continued for nearly a minute before Link began to tire. Shadow Link was not a physical being an as such was not a susceptible to exhaustion as Link was.

"What's wrong little hero? Tired already?" Shadow Link asked. Link let himself get angry and pushed back against the enemy, once again matching him for power, but it was exhausting him quickly. He spotted an opening and tried a horizontal slice and to his amazement Shadow Link had an original move that Link had never used. He did a somersault over the tip of Link's sword and landed weightlessly on the flat of Link's blade, then he swung his sword right at Link's head and Link only managed to barely twist out of the way. He retreated backwards and breathed heavily trying to recover his strength before the battle continued.

"You can never hope to beat me, child, you are merely human and I should have been a god!" The shadow exclaimed before charging forward again. Thus far the shadow had managed to mimic every single one of Link's sword and shield moves, but Link was curious what it could do about his other weapons, especially the ones that were unique that Link alone possessed, would he be able to mimic those as well, Link didn't think so. He put away his shield and was surprised when Shadow Link did the same. Without bothering to question why his enemy had put away its defense he pulled out a bomb and was sorely disappointed when Shadow Link did the same. All the same he tried lighting the fuse and throwing it and his enemy mimicked him, throwing its bomb at him as well. Link cut it out of the air as did Shadow Link, he needed something else. He pulled out his bow and so did Shadow, he pulled out the boomerang he hadn't used in years and so did his enemy. He went from item to item trying to find something that shadow Link didn't have and eventually as he was putting away his hookshot his hand closed around something extremely familiar from his childhood, a deku nut.

Link pretended he had nothing in his hands and reached up like he was going to hold his sword in two hands and the shadow charged at him, at the last moment Link threw the nut and closed his eyes and covered his ears. The blast and flash were deafening but not nearly as painful to Shadow Link as it would be to a mortal human, Link opened his eyes just in time to see Shadow Link's Dark Master Sword stab right through his blue tunic and the chainmail and into his abdomen. Shadow Link kept running and pushing him back with a sword running through him and Link nearly blacked out from the pain. He could feel his heartbeat in his head like a thudding hammer and his vision turned dark red around the edges. Sound began to fade away and everything sounded distant and muffled as if he were a very long way from his body. His back slammed into the rock on the right side of the room and Shadow Link's sword passed straight through the stone to the point where the guard of the sword was pressed against Link's chest so he was pinned to the rock like a bug in a collection.

"It's a damn shame you will die so quickly from that wound, I was looking forward to watching you suffer." Shadow stated, letting go of the sword and admiring his handiwork, Link hung from the blade with blood dripping out of his mouth and from the hilt of the sword. He was not going to last very long, maybe a minute. He felt his mind closing in around himself and he wondered if that was what it felt like to die. It was too slow and too painful, the world moved as if everything were made of molasses. Link wondered if this was really the end of his life, was he really going to die on the bottom of a lake with a black sword in his guts. He didn't have much time to dwell on the concept. He thought about all of the people who he had let down, all of the people who would die because he couldn't even defeat his own shadow. He heard Shadow Link talking but he didn't hear the words he was saying, as if they even mattered, they were just phrases designed to take away all hope as he lay dying on the end of a sword. A silent rage began to build within Link, a rage that quickly grew stronger and more powerful as he focused on it. His body was dying but he himself was not ready for death.

"I'm amazed you're still alive with such a wound, care to die yet or will you continue to withhold the satisfaction of witnessing your death?" Shadow Link asked. Fire boiled in Link's veins and his thoughts became muddy, he wasn't going to die on a wall like some insect pinned to a page in a book. If this was the end he was taking Shadow Link with him.

"No…" Link growled. Shadow Link frowned and looked at Link with a disappointed look on his face.

"Say what?" Shadow Link asked.

"NO!" Link channeled all his rage into a burst of Din's Fire that engulfed half of the room. Shadow Link leapt back and pulled out his shield to defend himself but his shadowy form still smoldered from the magical flames. Link could not reach The Master Sword from where he was stuck to the wall but he could reach the shadow weapon. Link grabbed the handle of the black weapon and felt it burning his hands but he ignored it and pulled the weapon out of his chest. Shadow Link was completely uncomprehending of what was happening, never before had he seen a Hylian fight so hard to stay alive.

Link completely removed the sword from his chest and then gripped it tightly in his blood coated hands before unleashing a battle cry the likes of which had not been heard since the days of primitive caves and animal men. Link charged engulfed purely by rage and the Shadow did not stand a chance. Link cut off its head with one swift motion and its body fell, but that had not been enough. Link slammed the shadow's own sword into its lifeless body again and again and again, hacking it to pieces that seemed to melt into the floor. He kept swinging even when the body wasn't there anymore and left deep gouges in the floor until finally the blood loss overcame him and he fell to his knees in the inch deep water.

The black sword didn't burn his hands anymore, that was the first thing he noticed. He slowly turned his right hand to look at the sword, while he hadn't been thinking he had used his non dominant hand to battle. What he saw on the back of his hand made his scream in surprise and fear. The Triforce of Courage no longer glowed as it had for the duration of his quest. It had been replaced by an angry red glow occupying the top shard of the Triforce. Power.

His left hand was still occupied by Courage but his right which held the black sword was Power, evil, darkness. His gaze shifted from one hand to the other and he tried to decide which was really his. He threw down the dark weapon and the Triforce of power disappeared from his right hand but he could not remove the image of it being there from his mind.

_You really look surprised, you know. Do you even realize who you really are?_

Link scrambled over to where his sword lay on the ground and he picked it up, holding it tightly in his left hand. He had just completely annihilated Shadow Link but the evil thing's voice still echoed in the chamber. Link spun around looking for him but he knew there was no body to attach with it. Shadow Link was too ancient and too evil to fully destroy with anything but the power of the gods, but his physical form had been destroyed for a good long while, at least for the duration of Link's quest.

_Foolish Hylian… you ARE Shadow Link._

The words rang coldly in Link's ears; he stumbled over to the tree in a manner that could be described as that of a drunkard though he was not one by any stretch of the definition. He managed to cut Ruto's bonds loose before falling to the ground unconscious from blood loss, The Master Sword still gripped tightly in his hand, its slight glow casting long shadows in the rapidly dimming chamber. He wasn't worried about dying any more though, although it had become a quite real possibility with the severity of his wound. He was worried about what Shadow Link had said and more so about how true it was. He had hacked that enemy's body to pieces long after it had been certainly dead and there was no justification for that kind of unwarranted rage. Maybe he truly was evil.

((()))

"Link, awaken! Link!"

Link found himself once again in the familiar clouded wasteland of his dreams. There was nothing that could catch his eye and nothing to focus on when he normally found himself in this place but this time was different, this time there was a person with him. She seemed entirely made out of some kind of soft blue substance that glowed in light and though she had legs she did not walk. Her arms were hidden beneath the folds of her cloak and a brooch made of a single massive diamond held it together.

"I have seen you before." Link stated. The figure nodded and floated down to him. He rose up to a standing position and found that even in the dream The Master Sword was still in his hand, its blade glowed the same color as the strange woman's skin.

"Yes, I was there in The Temple of Time, and I have been with you all along. I have many names, the one you call me is Master Sword, though the name given to me by Her Grace is 'Fi'. You are surprised to see me?" she asked. Link nodded.

"I have very little power left, the kingdom of Her Grace is failing and my power is derived from it. Even now as you speak to me my power is fading, I fear that this quest shall be my last. I came into your mind now with the last of my power to warn you not to give in to your hatred. Even now the darkness is trying to poison you; it is afraid of you and is trying to turn you before you can destroy it. If you let hate take control of you then you will never be the hero Hyrule needs." Fi said.

"Then how do I stop the hate, how do I not let it control me?" Link asked.

"If you don't hate your enemies, you will never hate anything again. Train yourself not to hate the enemy but to understand them and focus your true courage against them. Destroy them not because you want it to be done but because it needs to be done. Does that make sense to you?" Fi asked. Link honestly wasn't quite sure what he was being asked to do, after so much death and war he could not comprehend in his mind the idea of not hating his enemies and destroying them on sight.

As a matter of fact, the only enemies Link had not killed so far on his quest were the Gerudo, because they were not monsters like the other minions of Gannondorf, they were sentient and they had thoughts and emotions and feelings just like him. Every other enemy that had stood in Link's way had ended up slain on the point of his sword but he had not yet slain a Gerudo. It had not been a conscious decision to not kill them, he had the opportunity many times but something in the back of his mind had stayed his hand each time and he had allowed them life. It was his conscience, and the more he thought about it in the depths of his dream the stronger it became, a willpower that would drive him to battle the hosts of Gannondorf without losing his own humanity in the process.

"You must be strong Link, but true strength comes not from destroying all with your blade, but from knowing when to stay your weapon. Remember that." Fi said. Link nodded, now understanding what she had been telling him.

"Where do I go now? Shadow Link is dispelled and I think I freed the sage of water." Link stated. Fi shook her head 'no' when he said this and an image appeared in his mind of a room which was square in shape with land on the edges and then four platforms in a deep square pond. The water in the pond looked strange though, it had an odd purplish hue to it that did not seem right.

"The source of the curse over the Zora kingdom is in this place, to free the water people you must destroy the evil that lingers in that room. That is all I have the power to say now, you must discover the rest for yourself. I bid you good luck on your quest." Fi stated. With that the dream began to fade around Link and Fi morphed, changing form and shrinking until she was simply The Master Sword, grasped in his left hand. He blinked and his surroundings changed, he was lying on the floor in what appeared to be the main room of the temple staring straight into the oversized fish eyes of Ruto.

The sound of running water filled the chamber and Link saw that it had changed slightly since he had killed Shadow Link, vents had opened on the walls and water was flowing into the temple. Link was unsure if this was because he had killed Shadow Link or because he had destroyed the dam and the water had risen high enough to flow in. Either way it was a change that more than likely had opened and closed some entrances and exits throughout the structure.

"You're awake, that's good, for a moment there I thought you'd never get up. I used Zora healing magic on your wound and it helped, but the magic was never intended for use on Hylians and I could not seal your wound completely." Ruto stated. Link slowly rolled over and began to stand and pain stabbed through him with every movement. Blood soaked through his tunic and since it was not an ancient magic garment like the tunic from the temple of time it did not repair itself.

"Well, I'm not dead, that's a good start." Link groaned, stretching out to try and alleviate the pain in his side, it helped a little but not much. He wished he had some red potion but he had used the last of it on Malon at Lon Lon ranch and wasn't sure when the next time he could find some would be, for now the injury would need to heal the old fashioned way and that could take a very long time. Link was thankful that he had medical supplies in his pouch other than the red potion he had been relying on for the duration of his quest thus far. He pulled some bandages out of his pouch and lifted his tunic, chainmail, and gambeson to get at the injury. A thick white scar marked where the sword had pierced his body and the injury was closed at the edges but at the center it was still open.

Link washed the cut with handfuls of clear water and then wrapped the bandage around his chest and back, pulling it tight so it would keep pressure on the wounds. He needed stitches if he couldn't get his hands one some red potion but he didn't have the equipment with him to do a procedure like that either. For now the bandage would keep the wound from getting more severe. He put his clothes and armor back in place and then stood up, testing his balance. The injury was severe enough that he definitely should have sought medical attention rather than continuing on his quest, but Link didn't have time to do that.

"I came here hoping to pray to Nayru to save my people, but I was surprised to find that the source of the evil plaguing my people was actually here, within this temple. Some dark power has taken up residence here and even now resides in the prayer chamber." Ruto said. Link leaned against the wall; the agony of his injury was beginning to ebb down to a burning throb in his side.

"Do you know what it is? The evil that lingers here?" Link asked. Ruto's face darkened when Link asked this question and she pointed at the water all around them.

"The creature is called Morpha; it is a being of no physical form that disguises itself as water. Thankfully it is sealed inside the prayer chamber, but the water level is rising and once it overflows into the prayer chamber Morpha will be set loose upon the world. We cannot allow this to happen." Ruto warned. Link tried to envision what a monster made of water would look like; he couldn't get the image of it into his mind. How dangerous could water even be? He had never heard of cyclones and large scale flooding and so had no idea of the lethality of water.

"How long do we have until the water rises high enough for it to escape?" Link asked. Ruto's eyes told him the story before her mouth did. Link himself had seen the water level rise a few inches just since he had awoken in the room. There was a massive door that stood high above the rest of the places in the room and in the center there was a massive golden lock that must have required a key the size of Link's arm to open.

"We have half an hour at best, but probably more like twenty minutes." Ruto replied. Link wondered if it was even possible to find a hidden key and defeat whatever evil lay in that room in the amount of time he had to do it in.

"I know what you're thinking, the key is not far, but we must hurry. Follow me." Ruto ordered. Link didn't like being ordered around by Ruto but he also didn't have time to complain, he needed to get to work doing what he did best. Ruto dove into the clear waters below and sent up a great splash of water and Link followed close behind. The blue tunic still worked despite the hole in the front and back of the torso, but he noticed that the weight of the water around him was just a little bit more oppressive than it had been before. His ability to breathe under the water wasn't compromised yet but he didn't want to bet on how long that would last if his tunic took any more damage.

Ruto swam down to the second level and into a corridor hewn out of solid rock that twisted and turned like a snake. Link followed her and at the end of the tunnel came out in a large room literally filled with razor shells. Link pulled his hookshot out with his right hand and his sword with his left and stopped swimming so his weight carried him down to the floor. The razor shells didn't seem bothered by Ruto's presence but they seemed pretty intent on taking out Link. Thankfully his combination of using his sword and hookshot was able to keep them at bay as he crossed the room.

Link killed four of the razor shells with his sword and six with his hookshot but dozens more kept coming and he knew he didn't have time to take them all so instead he just went straight to the chest and pried it open with the tip of the Master Sword. A blast of bubbles shot up from the chest that had been sealed when the room was still above water. Link grabbed the key from within and then he and Ruto fled from the room before they could be set upon by the monsters rapidly surrounding them.

The two didn't look back as they swam as quickly as possible back up to the surface and didn't waste any time in approaching the large iron door at the back with the golden lock. Link jammed the massive key into the lock and there was a loud click that echoed through the chamber before the door slid upwards into the ceiling.

The room beyond the door was a simplistic trap, a ramp that was very difficult to climb with blade traps sliding back and forth across it so only one with perfect timing could reach the top. Link didn't have any difficulty getting through the trap and Ruto just followed his lead up to a second door at the top of the ramp. The water level had risen in the main chamber to half way up to the first door, which meant that in the time since he had left to get the key they had lost a quarter of their time, about six minutes. At that rate, he would have about eighteen minutes left.

Link pushed his hand against the door at the top of the room and it slid upwards just like the last one into the ceiling, revealing the room that Fi had shown him in his vision. The room appeared empty but Link knew that the enemy was disguised as the water within the pit in the area. Link drew his sword and shield and approached the edge of the water. When he got closer he could see that the water had a purplish hue to it and was gelatinous in nature, it was not nearly normal as it had appeared when he entered the room. Link dipped the point of the Master Sword into the water and frost began to spread from it across the surface of the substance. The frost spread about a foot from the blade and then there was a loud roaring sound and the entire pool seemed to come alive.

What could only be described as a beam of water shot forth from the pool and slammed into his chest with crushing force. Link had no doubt the beam would have crushed him against the wall if Ruto hadn't leapt into the path of it and sliced it apart with her bladed fins. The moment the water was separated from the pool with fell and splashed on the floor like normal water. Another beam shot out of the pond aimed at Ruto and Link slashed it out of the air, but before he realized what was even going on, a tendril of gel wrapped around his leg and dragged him towards the pool. Link slashed at it but he had already been grabbed by several more tendrils and was dragged fully into the pool.

Link swung his sword wildly as he was dragged into the pond but it didn't seem to do any harm to the watery substance.

Link didn't think that water could pummel him the way the substance he was dragged into attacked him. It felt like a dozen people slamming their fists into him with unrivaled vigor. Link fought the urge to close his eyes and tried to look for any sort of weakness. That was when he saw it, a red ball about the size of his head; he could sense that it was a powerful mind of sorts when he saw it, the operator of all the gelatinous fluid around him. Link wasn't sure how much more of a beating he could take though and he wasn't sure if he'd even be able to find his hookshot in his pouch in such pain.

What Link needed first was a way out of the pond and he couldn't think of anything. How does one fight against water itself, he had been engulfed by it and he could not escape it by swimming or using his sword. As Morpha relentlessly attacked him he tried desperately to find a weapon that would work against water.

Link felt like an idiot when he figured out what he needed to do. He closed his eyes and curled into a ball, focusing all of his energy into a spark of Din's Fire. The spark formed between his hands and then he focused all the energy he could muster into building the spark between his hands into a flame. A roaring sound pierced Link's mind as the monster let loose a wild roar. The fire grew larger until Link was entirely engulfed in flame and a ball of steam began to form. Morpha fought to keep Link under the surface but as the pressure built the power of steam began to overwhelm Morpha's dark power. Suddenly there was an explosion as Morpha finally failed to contain the steam bubble and bits of gelatin were sent flying to every corner of the room leaving half of the pond, where Link stood, empty.

Link spotted the nucleus hovering in the gel near the edge of the empty space Din's Fire had made and pointed his sword at it. He focused all his power into shooting a sword beam and while it was weak it still caused an explosion on impact. The Nucleus was deep enough in the gel as to not be harmed by the blast but the explosion opened a hole that Link charged straight into with his sword outstretched in front of him. The blade stabbed through the gel and cut the edge of the glowing nucleus and another earsplitting roar filled the room. Link tore through gel and red flesh with his sword but it still wasn't able to cause much damage to the gelatin itself. The thick fluid began to flow back into the pool and twist around Link's ankles.

Ruto ran around the top of the pond and launched her blade fins into the fluid surrounding the brain. There was a ripple through the gelatin as Link assumed the central brain had taken damage again and a moment later Ruto's fins returned from the fluid.

Morpha reformed and attacked with more vigor than before. Link leapt out of the pond as massive tubular tentacles of gelatin viciously attacked him and Ruto. Link slashed them out of the air when they appeared but there were too many and pain stabbed through him as one struck him in the back of his head.

Link raised his shield and blocked one such attack and was thrown backwards by the force of it, he slammed into the wall and heard a cracking noise in his shoulder, his right arm was in pain and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to take another hit on his shield. He dropped his shield and drew his hookshot, aiming into the gelatin at the red nucleus far below the surface. It would be stretching the range of the hookshot but he could reach it, he focused on his target and time seemed to slow down as he exhaled and smoothly pulled the trigger.

He didn't miss. The spear point at the end of the hookshot ripped through the soft flesh of Morpha's brain and dragged it out of the water. The moment the brain was ripped from the gelatinous body the gel became normal water. Link had put away his sword to fire the hookshot two handed for accuracy and didn't bother drawing it again. Instead he just dropped the hookshot and began slamming his gauntlet clad fists into the abomination until it was reduced to an empty skin and a puddle of blood on the floor. In that instant he began to feel himself losing control again as he had battling Shadow Link hardly an hour before. He was letting hate and anger take over and that was something he couldn't allow. Link stopped pummeling the dead creature and stepped backwards, letting the blood drip off his hands and onto the floor of the chamber.

He felt sick inside. His brain was weakening, his body was over taxed, he had almost nothing left to push back against the evil attempting to poison his mind. He stumbled backwards till he hit the wall and slid downward to the floor, he closed his eyes and tried to get rid of the pounding in his head but it was no use, the throbbing within his mind was only growing stronger with his own inner turmoil and the brewing sensation of an evil force lurking deep within him began to rise up in his throat.

Within the dark recesses of his mind, Link heard a voice far more ancient than that of Shadow Link and far more evil than that of Gannondorf, an antithesis to the spirit Fi within his sword.

_**Hate never perishes… it is born anew in a cycle with no end. Pathetic is your attempt to hold the sword of your ancestor, I cursed him and his curse has passed to you and all others who wield that blade, that you should wander a blood soaked sea of darkness for eternity. My hate lives on in you, Hero of Time, embrace it now.**_

_Link, you must hold back. The Dark One is trying to deceive you into forgetting who you truly are. You are the only threat to him attaining ultimate power, he knows he cannot defeat you and so is trying to overcome you through lies and shadows. You are better than him Link and cannot allow him to drag you into the evil pit from whence he came._

_**You were happy in the forest, child, no harm came to you there. These so called lightworlders ended your happiness to defend themselves from that which they did not understand. You owe them nothing because they have given you nothing but pain and sorrow, just go back to the forest and be happy, leave the turmoil of my world to greater beings.**_

The darkness sounded so sweet, so overpoweringly tempting that Link did not know what to think. Was he really fighting for the right side? Something about the dark words sounded impossibly right and he truly began to doubt in his mind if he was really fighting for the right side in this battle.

_Link… Saria almost died to destroy an evil similar to the one that now tempts you. He desires nothing more than power and to watch the world of Hylians burn in hellfire. You must stay true to who you are within and fight so that others may experience the happiness you once had, not the dark shadow world that this plague desires._

"I…" Link started. Both of the voices hiding within his mind silenced as if waiting to hear him speak. Link choked on his words, the inner turmoil of his mind clouding his thought and judgment.

"I… I will not turn against my friends, be gone scum and take your mind plague with you. I don't care what blackness you try to place upon my mind, I AM the Hero of Time." Link stated. The voices faded from his mind and he felt strength return to his body, he opened his eyes and found himself staring directly into the face of the Zora Princess Ruto.

"Link… What in Din's name was that?"

He didn't even bother trying to explain, it would take too long and he had a quest to complete.

**End Ocarina of Time Part II**

**A Third Book Begins Here, Press 'Next Chapter' to Continue**


	35. The Shadowed Past

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

Ocarina of Time Part III

**I apologize for the lateness of this chapter, I had to pick up the pace of the story and wasn't quite sure how exactly to do it. If the timing seems odd I apologize in advance, I'm doing the best I can. Also, there is a major alteration of the original plot of the game in this chapter involving time travel (inspired by Oracle of Ages), just roll with it. **

Chapter 35: The Shadowed Past

Sanity is a precious thing, but like all things valuable it is also fragile. It does not take much to destroy it. Link was being pushed to the edge of his own sanity; he did not know how much more he could take before his mind would collapse. The torment of time travel and endless combat and the constant companionship of death was enough to push any man over the edge, and Link was handling it better than most but even he was approaching his limit.

He could feel it inside his mind, a constant hatred burning for his enemies, images flashed inside his head of Gannondorf impaled on The Master Sword and every time he saw it he could feel the sticky warmth of black blood on his hands and felt a slight tingle of satisfaction in the back of his mind. He pushed the thoughts away moments after they appeared, remembering that he was supposed to be the good guy, but they were constantly there, constantly coming back. Every time he closed his eyes they were there, and so for the two days since he had killed Morpha he had not slept, he had wandered Hyrule Field like a tortured spirit in eternal unrest. Night had fallen and in his daze Epona had taken charge and brought him to the gates of Kakariko village.

Link felt a strange warmth on his face as he approached the village and Epona trotted straight through the open and unguarded gates. Link snapped out of his confusion on the other side of the gate when his gaze drifted to the body of a Hylian soldier lying prone on the ground with a black arrow in his back. He looked up and saw flames rising high into the night sky, several buildings near the gate were on fire and the fire was so bright that it hurt his eyes. He was dazed from sleep deprivation but managed to dismount his horse, stumbling into the village. A few Lizafos ran past him towards the gate, soot from torches still staining their hands.

Link drew his sword and cut down one Lizafos in a single swift motion but the rest got away from him and escaped out the gate, he knew he was needed more in the village to put out the flames than to be chasing a few monsters that could easily be taken care of later. Link staggered into the village, still in a daze, looking for any effort to put out the flames. The village appeared to be completely empty though, as a matter of fact Link hadn't even seen anybody since he entered the village aside from the dead guards at the gate.

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye he spotted a soldier lying on the ground, apparently uninjured but still down for some reason. Link ran up to him and removed the knight's helmet, still no apparent injuries; he began checking the man's vitals when he heard a sound that was completely impossible.

The guard was snoring; he was sleeping in the middle of the road during a fire. Link shook the guard violently to try and rouse him but the guard did not wake, only mumbled something so quiet that Link was hardly sure of what he had heard.

"The Well… Demon… cursed us… help" The knight mumbled in his slumber. Link set down the helmet next to the downed soldier and spotted another down the street who appeared to be in a similar predicament. He didn't have time to waste, he ran up the road towards the village well at the center of the town. As he rounded the side of a flaming building and the well came into sight he spotted Sheik standing over the well holding a sword in one hand and a staff in the other with the sheikah eye emblazoned on the staff head.

The well boiled and steam rose from it, filling the air with an almost suffocating haze that glowed eerily in the firelight. Sheik raised the staff and began shouting words in Ancient Hylian that seemed to have a short term calming effect on the waters of the well.

"Link, get back!" Sheik shouted from the edge of the well without turning to face him. She leapt up onto the stone rim and pointed her staff down into the water, continuing to try using magic on whatever darkness plagued it. The well stopped boiling and the flow of steam ceased for a moment. Link thought Sheik had won but what happened a second later contradicted that.

A pillar of water was blown out of the well straight up into the sky and Sheik was thrown backwards by the blast, she slammed into a building head first and then spun around to land on the ground about a dozen feet from the well unconscious. Link ran forward with his sword and shield drawn as what appeared to be a mass of purple haze rose out of the well and began circling in the black sky overhead. The haze descended upon Sheik but Link leapt into its path, raising the Hylian shield between it and him, pulling back his sword and charging it with a blast of Din's Fire.

The shadow didn't even slow down when Link stepped into its path, just as it reached his shield Link spun around in a circle, unleashing holy flame from his blade into the shadowy mass and hoping it would have an effect. A blast of dark energy hit him at the same moment as he attacked and he was thrown backward, his back slamming into a building painfully hard in the process. He remained conscious long enough to see that a flame had caught within the darkness and it was retreating back down into the depths of the well, he had held it off, if only for just a short time. He knew he would have to battle the shadow again some time, but he had delayed it, if only for a short time.

Link's vision became a swirling mass of darkness as his impact with the wall combined with his severe sleep loss took a toll on him and he faded into unconsciousness. The shadow crept towards Link's prone form, weary of once again tasting the bite of The Master Sword. After a few moments of deliberation, the shadow surged forward, preparing to finish the hero for good.

A blazingly bright light split the smoke and ash filled sky and seemed to rip the fire from the earth, putting out every fire in the village at once. For a moment there were two suns, one the true eye of Din and the other an impossibly powerful impostor. The shadow retreated as a single beam of light from the new second sun landed directly upon the fallen Hero of Time.

Outlined in the sky by the pillar of pure blue light was a human form, but her height was greater than that of any human and a pair of fairy wings sprouted from her back. In her hand she held an ancient elvish blade identical to the one wielded by Her Grace at the Dawn of Time.

"Be gone! Demon!" A woman's voice rang through the village, the shadow retreated into the well and all was quiet. The light dimmed and the queen of the fairies descended from the sky. Navi took a short look at the man she had sworn to protect, she was supposed to accompany him on his quest and from many points of view she had failed in her quest. There had been many times when Link had sorely needed her help and she had been unable to offer assistance of any form, but that was just how things were, she had to leave him for the greater good of Hyrule.

She landed next to him and though she walked on the earth her feet did not even bend the grass, as though her matter was ethereal and she bore no weight. She knelt next to Link and placed her hand on his forehead, thin tendrils of magical energy wove across his body and his injuries healed themselves, though he himself remained unconscious, that was all the help she could offer at the moment and it pained her to be unable to do more for him.

Navi closed her eyes and sighed, waiting a moment for her magic to complete its work before rising to her feet and disappearing into the sky as suddenly as she had appeared, leaving the village of Kakariko in a sorry state behind her. If Gannondorf maintained power too much longer there would not be a Hyrule left to save.

"Hurry Link, we all know you can do it." Navi whispered to herself as she faded from mortal sight into the clouds above.

((()))

"Looks like you're coming around"

Link's eyes blinked open and the brightness of the sunlight over head blazed in his eyes. He felt a hollowness inside him that could be equated to hunger, if he was hungry. He knew he hadn't eaten in days but he also knew the feeling wasn't hunger, it was something else entirely that caused him to feel an emptiness within. A loss of hope.

"What happened?" Link asked, not entirely recalling the events of the previous night. Sheik quickly explained what had happened and Link began to remember it himself shortly after she began talking, but he still let her finish in case there were any details he had forgotten. Her account ended with when she had been knocked out and by then Link remembered everything that occurred afterwards. He recovered his sword and shield and put them on his back before walking over to the edge of the well and looking down into its depths.

"You can't fight that enemy as you are now. Your magic fire barely harmed it and already it has recovered. You need an item that no longer exists in this age." Sheik explained. Link was puzzled by this, how could he get something that no longer existed?

"The Master Sword has another power that you have not yet used. You believe you lost seven years of your life when you drew it but that is a false concept, the river of time does not flow simply one way. If you return The Master Sword to the Pedestal of Time you can travel back in time and claim the item which has been lost, it waits beneath the well. You must be careful though, the place beneath the well has been haunted since ancient days, dark creatures lurk down there, the likes of which you have never encountered and shall hopefully never see in light of day." Sheik explained. Link was honestly a little confused by all of this; he thought all the time that had passed when he drew The Master Sword had been completely and utterly lost; now he was being told otherwise.

"What will I use as a weapon, I gave Mido the Kokiri my sword from my childhood, I thought I would never need it again." Link stated. Sheik reached behind her back and pulled out a broken sword, its hilt was more than a foot long and the blade had broken off about two feet above the handle.

"This is a Goron weapon, the giant's knife, it is broken but its size while shattered is perfect for you as a child. Perhaps it can be re-forged when you no longer require it in the past." Sheik said, handing the broken sword to Link. The handle would be a bit large for him to use it one handed but he would be able to wield it in two hands very effectively, it was possibly even a better weapon than the Kokiri sword for a child size wielder.

Link took the sword and put it in his pouch, slowly rising up to his feet.

"So I just have to put this thing back where I found it, and I go back to my childhood?" Link asked. Sheik shook her head.

"Not exactly. The day Hyrule fell is vital to history and is as such suspended in time; you will arrive at a different time likely very close to it, maybe a week before or after the battle." Sheik explained.

"When time has been restored to its normal passing you may once again be able to return to your childhood permanently… let us go to the Temple of Time."

Link wasted no time in pulling out his ocarina and the two quickly played through the Prelude of Light, which teleported them into the temple of time. Thus far Link had hardly used his teleportation, it just had been so difficult to grasp the concept of it that he had opted not to use it unless absolutely necessary. Now he realized just how useful it was, as he and Sheik were instantaneously teleported back to the Temple of Time where they had first met.

"Now, when you get back to the time in which you belong… Well, it is going to be a little weird. You're a big boy though, you can handle it. I honestly have no idea what it will be like for you, I have never time travelled before." Sheik stated as she led him back to the rear of the room where the pedestal of time waited. Link drew The Master Sword as they neared the platform and felt a strange warmth spreading through his chest, a mystical energy that seemed to come from the temple itself. He stopped at the foot of the pedestal, as if waiting for some signal to put the sword back in the stone from whence it came.

"Do not hesitate, just act." Sheik instructed. Link twirled the sword around up over his head and then grabbed it in two hands, stabbing it downward into the pedestal of time. There was a split second where nothing happened and Link wondered if somehow the sword had lost its powers and he could no longer travel through time. Suddenly, the blade of the sword glowed blue and columns of light began to rise from the edges of the platform on which the pedestal sat. Link closed his eyes as the waves of energy washed over him and let the river of time drag his consciousness away like a piece of flotsam in a hard current, only he was not moving with the current but against it. At some point there was a change, and it felt as if the world around him had suddenly and violently been ripped away. His eyes were closed but he still saw bright light and his conscious thought faded.

Link woke up on the floor, The Master Sword in its pedestal towering over him. He slowly rose to his feet and found that the pommel of the sword was at nose level, had he really just travelled _backwards_ in time? There was only one way to be sure, he stopped for a moment and listened, surprised that he was unable to hear the clamor of the city outside. He wondered if the time travel had actually worked, he had to look outside to know for sure. Link checked his pouch and made sure he had everything he could possibly need, the broken sword was there and he put away his entire sword and shield bandolier to avoid attracting attention to himself. Inside his wallet he had a little over a hundred rupees that he had gathered throughout his quest, which would be plenty for whatever he found himself needing.

The Temple of Time did not hint at any change at all, it appeared exactly as it should have, unchanging, constant. Outside the world changed but The Temple of Time appeared to have transcended the passing of the mortal world, the enchantments on it would take many millennia to fade away.

"unbelievable, inconceivable, impossible" Link muttered to himself as he crossed the main hall, he wished he still had Navi's companionship, he had nobody to talk to but himself in the past.

"_Seven _years? What the hell?" Link's voice trailed off as he pushed the door of the temple open and looked at the city outside.

At least, he was looking at what should have been a city. He wanted to go back seven years through time and found himself looking at something closer to a few hundred. The moat and walls of the castle had not been built yet; dirt roads and small shacks filled the area with the inner castle in the beginning stages of construction. Link spotted the beginnings of a trench surrounding the town which must have been the predecessor of the moat. The Temple of Time towered over the olden village, which appeared basically to be a larger version of the Kakariko Village of the future. Link wondered if Kakariko Village even existed yet, if it didn't, then finding The Lens of Truth would be a lot more difficult.

Link slowly made his way down the hill from the temple entrance into the town below, keeping his face pointed towards the ground to avoid attracting attention. It was a good idea and it worked for a minute, but he hardly made it past the first house before he was stopped.

"Hey kid, where did you come from?" A farmer asked, he was an older man who very obviously had been living in the town for a long time. With such a small population it was likely that someone who had been around for so long would know everybody in the town.

"Nowhere in particular, I'm heading for Kakariko." Link replied. The man wasn't convinced and didn't step out of his way.

"I saw you step out of The Temple of Time, those doors haven't opened since the dawn of time, child, and not for lack of mortals trying." The farmer stated, not stepping out of his way. Link calculated the odds of pushing his way past the farmer. The man was old but years of working had kept him in excellent shape, there was no way Link could simply push past him without using excessive force or a weapon.

"You must have mis-seen" Link simply replied, he tried to quickly step around the farmer but the man stepped in his way and didn't let him pass. By now other people had started showing up, studying Link curiously.

"I'm not letting you pass till you tell me who you are. They say only the Hero of Time can enter that place, are you the Hero of Time?" the farmer demanded.

"Well, that's for you to figure out on your own time, I must be going!" Link replied. He pushed his way past the farmer and started running towards the edge of town. The farmer and a few others followed him shouting for him to come back but there wasn't a man in Hyrule who could outrun a Kokiri.

"Did you see his hand? He bears the Triforce!" A woman on the side of the road shouted. Link tucked his hands under his arms to keep the marks on his hands out of sight but the damage was already done, he had been seen for who he really was hardly five minutes out of the temple, his plans of remaining unidentified were dashed. All he could do was to keep running out of town and try and get to Kakariko as quickly as possible.

"Hey! Stop! You must stop!" A guard shouted at the only bridge crossing the trench. He stepped into Link's path and turned his spear sideways as a bar to stop him from crossing. Link turned right and ran around a small house and fenced in yard. On the other side the trench was an unbroken barrier fifteen feet across. Link figured out the distance in his head and tried to decide if he could actually make it, there was only one way to find out. He ran faster and pushed himself to the limit of his abilities, then when he reached the edge of the trench he leapt with all the power he could muster.

The guard's eyes widened in shock as Link leapt from the inner edge of the trench and hurtled through the air, the trench was deeper than Link had expected and fear surged through his chest when he looked down and saw a twenty foot drop below him. For a moment he didn't think he was going to make it, but he landed half in and half out of the trench. His feet dangled and his torso was bent over the trench edge, loose soil crumbled and he began to slide backwards, but managed to swing his legs up onto the trench edge and roll onto the edge of Hyrule Field.

The guard ran across the bridge and bore down on him but within moments Link was on his feet and running. The guard was even less able than the normal Hylians to keep up with him because of his chainmail armor and spear, a weight that dragged him down. Link was unencumbered and ran at full sprint for the better part of a mile till the castle had disappeared in the distance behind him. The roads were different from how he remembered them but everything seemed to be in the same places so he just skipped the roads and headed straight for Kakariko Village.

He noticed that the walls surrounding Lon Lon Ranch were not nearly as crumbled and broken as they were in his time, he wondered if it was still a ranch this far back in time or not, it certainly didn't look to be occupied. Either way, he didn't really have time to investigate and just kept moving towards Kakariko village, following his memory rather than the strange roads of the shadowed past.

Everything worked out great until he found out that the path cut into the mountain's base that he had used in the future did not yet exist. The cliff walls were as high as towers and too sheer to climb, he needed to find a road through and he knew there had to be one, the place was too important for there to be no road. He followed the cliff wall south for a long ways, looking for any way to get over or through it, till eventually he came to a cave with a sign posted outside of it.

Kakariko Village Road  
>Watch out for Redeads<p>

Link frowned and pulled his sword out of his pouch, holding the oversize hilt with both hands as he carefully approached the dark entrance into the tunnel delving into the deep. Torches had been placed on the walls every hundred feet or so, filling the cavern with an angry red light. The floor had been paved and a tunnel had been cut through the cavern so that the road was straight as an arrow.

Footsteps echoed loudly on the paved floor of the dark tunnel and Link felt the presence of monsters about, seeking blood, seeking him. He kept his weapon drawn as he walked and when a single Keese dropped from the ceiling he had no difficulty dispatching it with a swift cut from his sword. The birdlike creature was cloven in two and the remaining halves were engulfed in blue flame as the creature fell to the floor in ruin. The wet noise of the avian body hitting the floor sounder far louder than Link expected that it should have and there was an instantaneous change in the atmosphere of the cavern.

Before he killed the Keese the cavern was somewhat well lit along the trail by the magical torches and a breeze blew inward from Hyrule Field. Suddenly the air ceased to move and turned stale, leaving the dull taste of dust in Link's mouth. The torches remained lit just as brightly but the light they cast off seemed to be sucked away. Link closed his eyes and listened, his elvish ears twitched rapidly, trying to discern any source of noise in the caverns. After a few moments he found it, and it was way closer than he wanted it to be.

A moan echoed from a deep, dark, side tunnel and Link's grip on his blade became white knuckled. He stared deep into the darkness, expecting a pair of glowing red eyes belonging to some foul creature to greet him in return, something to attack. What he saw instead was even worse though than any other creature. Slowly, a humanoid form emerged from the darkness. It had rotted into nothingness so long ago that no stench remained, only the sound of ancient bones grinding and a low seemingly endless moan. Upon its face was a deformed wooden mask, warped and cracked with age, he didn't even want to know what lay beneath. Two dark eye holes stood upon the blank surface but within them there was nothing but a void. No eyes, no existence, just an emptiness as dark and impenetrable as the primeval blackness from whence the world had emerged.

Link could not move, he was entranced by the darkness; he couldn't take his eyes off it. The shriek of the dead one became omnipotent, drowning out every noise, replacing the taste of dust in the air with the putrid flavor of ash. The feeling of his feet on the ground was gone and his skin grew frigid and soaked in a cold sweat, as if he were drifting alone in the blood soaked sea of darkness threatened many ages ago by the Demon King.

The hand of the Redead closed around Link's shoulder, the sharpened fingertips easily pressing through cloth and flesh, ripping through muscle and tendon. Even the mind numbing powers of the Draugr couldn't hide from Link's mind the pain of his shoulder being mangled by an ancient bony hand. He struggled out of the death trance and screamed in terror, ramming the broken sword forward with all the strength he could muster into the gut of the olden fiend. The weapon seemed to do nothing and Link didn't have the strength left after the sapping power of the death trance to strike again.

His vision darkened further until he could see nothing but the void behind the Redead's eye holes, drawing him into the realm of death. He lost all knowing of the physical world and fell limp to the floor, the Redead fell to its knees next to him, grabbing Link's right hand and moving it to its mouth filled with rot and old blood, preparing to satisfy its endless thirst for living blood. There was no way out, no means of escape; The Hero of Hyrule was as good as dead.

…

**BWAHAHAHA hope you like cliffhangers! I know what you're all thinking… "Why the fuck was this chapter 1 whole month late" and my answer to that is my ridiculously busy life. I beg of all of you to check out my Cosplay page on Facebook**

** SiegfriedCosplay****  
>Check out the page and you'll see what I've been busy with, every single incredible thing you can imagine and making costumes for all things Zelda. I actually won first prize at the first Cosplay contest I ever entered about three weeks ago at the Eastern Shore Fan Con in Maryland.<br>My page has a list of all the conventions I plan on attending, it is not a new thing, I've been doing Cosplay for years, but only recently got serious about it when I met Jeron Moore the producer of the Zelda Symphony at Magfest and got added by the entire ZREO/Zelda Symphony crew on facebook. If you ever plan on attending a convention in the MD/VA area look out for a Link with a Trumpet because that is me.**

**Well, that's about all I have to say about why I was late on my update. From this point forward I will try to be on schedule, I can't make any guarantees just because of how busy I am but I promise I will never abandon this fic. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review.**


	36. The Darkest Depth

The Legacy of Hyrule

By Robert Siegfried

**I once again apologize for many of my updates being irregular and late. I promise you its not a permanent thing, I'm just extraordinarily busy at the moment being drawn and quartered by Fanfiction, 11****th**** grade, Cosplay, and Music. Aside from assisting a friend through Ocarina of Time I haven't so much as touched a Zelda game in about seven months… Yeah, I'm that busy. On top of that I'm going to be an editing assistant on another novel by Thomas Young and that too is tearing into my time.**

**I promise once school ends in June the updates will return to some semblance of regularity, for the time being I'll be trying to squeeze in one before the end of the school year.**

Chapter 36: The Darkest Depth

"I just want to know what in Din's name killed it, because it certainly wasn't that kid." Someone spoke in the distance, Link couldn't make out much but he knew the voice was certainly that of a young man, likely in his twenties and probably a member of the military no less.

"There was no visible injury to the Draugr that could have killed it, but we did notice a flash of golden light from the tunnel as we approached. It is possible that…" The second man said, he sounded like he was even younger, probably about twenty at most, a young recruit by the sound of things.

"Don't give me any of that goddess bullshit you've been spouting all morning, I don't care to hear it, the mark of the Triforce on the child's hand is nothing more than a conveniently shaped scar."

Link became aware first of voices in his immediate vicinity and second of incredible agony in his right wrist. He felt as if every limb of his body had been turned to solid lead, he could hardly move at all. His weapons and his equipment pouch had vanished, leaving him unarmed in a strange bed.

"What about his bag, I've never seen anything with magic like that on it." the second man's voice stated. Link slowly rose into a sitting position and looked down at his wrist, his entire forearm was wrapped in thick white bandages which encircled so many times that his hand hardly protruded. Despite the amount of bandages wrapped around his arm blood had still managed to soak through, a red circle stood in stark contrast to the white bandages over his right wrist and the entire side of his tunic was caked in blood he assumed had come from the injury.

"Link died only four hundred years ago, the prophesy said that another Chosen One would not appear for _Eight_ hundred, it takes more to make a hero than a broken Goron blade." The first man's voice said. There was a sound of steel ringing as the broken sword was picked up off a table in the adjoining room.

Link slowly rose from the bed, feeling dizzy from blood loss but managing to keep his footing. A trail of dried blood flakes followed him as it sprinkled off his clothes and onto the floor, despite this, he himself was very difficult to see as he snuck across the room to the solitary door.

"Should we inform Queen Zelda?" the second man asked. There were a few moments of silence and the moment the talking resumed Link tried to quietly open the door. The bolt clicked but the door did not open, it was locked from the other side or otherwise jammed shut with no way of being opened from his side, and the room lacked windows so there was no way he could possibly get out other side, aside from burning a hole in the wall which he wasn't stupid enough to even try doing.

"I don't know, your squad should be back from the north side of town pretty soon, we'll decide then. What did the healer say?" The first man asked. Link began searching the room for anything he could use to get out of the room but there was nothing, the entire room was barren of weapons and supplies, whoever it was who had locked him in had been sure to get rid of anything he could use to get out. Based on how they had been talking outside of the room Link assumed that the people outside were soldiers and likely not hostile, if they wanted him dead he wouldn't have been alive, but he still needed to get out and get the lens of truth to keep his quest moving onwards. If he couldn't find some way out he'd be stymied something akin to four hundred years in the past.

"Healer said he'd be fine, our medic is the one who did the bandaging but the local healer approved it." The second man replied. Link quit listening and lay down on the bed in resignation, he closed his eyes and tried to get some rest to recover his strength, but it was hardly a few minutes before the lock clicked and the door to the room opened. Heavy boots clanked on the floor as someone walked into the room and the floor creaked beneath them.

Link kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep, intentionally slowing his breathing to keep the appearance of an unconscious state. A soft hand rested on his forehead and it felt cold against his skin.

"His temperature has dropped to a normal level, and the bleeding appears to have stopped from his wrist injury. I should change the bandage now." A woman's voice stated, based on the sound her boots made he assumed she was the military medic and not the local healer.

"How does a boy so young come to possess such weapons, wandering so far from wherever home may be. I'm curious to hear his story when he awakens." The medic said, running her hand through his hair before standing up and walking to the other side of the bed to remove the bandage on his arm. Link was surprised how quickly she managed to remove his bandage and clean out the wound before replacing it with a new one, completing the task in under a minute.

"The sheikah want him, they seem to believe that mark on his hand beyond a doubt and have demanded we turn him over to them." The medic stated.

"How long till they get here?" The leader asked. Just as he asked the question there was a loud knock at the front door of the house.

"That's them… they insisted." The medic replied. The front door of the house opened and several individuals walked inside.

"The child may stop pretending to be asleep now." A man with a deep voice stated. Link opened his eyes and saw a Sheikah man in the room with a posse of warriors in black waiting behind him in the doorway, Link had no idea how the man could tell that he wasn't actually asleep, but whatever it was had been picked up on almost instantly as soon as the Sheikah warrior had walked into the room.

"We have been expecting you for many centuries, child, awaiting your imminent return." The Sheikah man stated. He reached down and grabbed Link's good hand and the mark of the Triforce upon it glowed brightly at the slightest contact, sending everyone in the room leaping backwards away from the Kokiri child.

"You carry great courage, but even courage is useless without the power to use it." The Sheikah man stated. He turned to face the leader of the Hylian garrison in Kakariko village.

"Return his weapons and equipment, he will be leaving with us." He ordered. The Hylian soldier didn't like the idea of being ordered around by someone who wasn't even in the military, but he knew better than to cross the Sheikah, in the kingdom of Hyrule there was no single warrior superior to a Sheikah Assassin. Within moment's Link's weapons and equipment were returned to him and he rose to speak with the Sheikah who had set him free.

"Who are you?" Link asked curiously, the Sheikah bowed deeply when Link asked this question.

"My name is Shakai Asanaa, I am the leader of the Sheikah of this age. My daughter Impa claimed this village from the darkness that was once the valley of mountain-shadow." The man stated.

"Wait… Impa lives in this age?" Link asked in amazement. The Sheikah ruler nodded and pointed to the door where a young woman, hardly an adult, stood in the characteristic armor of the sheikah tribe. Link could tell it was definitely her by her eyes, though physically she was far younger than her future self, her eyes were the same as his memory told him they would be.

"Ten years to a Hylian is as one to us. I should expect myself to be quite old in your time, though certainly not dead." Impa stated from the doorway. The Hylian soldier returned with Link's equipment pouch which he quickly returned to his hip, and instantly his sense of security was somewhat restored. He still felt pitifully weak and unarmed as a child but that was an unavoidable fact of being smaller and physically weaker than his adult form.

"We know your quest, the place you desire to go, and it is quite dangerous. Even a sheikah such as myself would not dare to face your peril alone… Link, are you listening?" Impa asked. Link in fact was not paying much attention to what she was saying, because the pain in his wrist was growing and drew his thoughts away.

"He has a nasty Draugr bite on his arm." The Hylian soldier explained. Shakai Asanaa knelt down next to Link and with a single deft motion unwrapped the entire bandage from his arm, revealing a deep ragged hole that severed multiple tendons and veins. Shakai placed his hand over the wound and whispered a few words of ancient Hylian beneath his breath, his hand glowed and a golden light transferred from his hand to the wound, which slowly but visibly closed until it was entirely non-existent, leaving no evidence that he had ever been bit. Shakai was exhausted but otherwise unaltered by the experience.

"I… thank you." Link stuttered, flustered and amazed by the sudden disappearance of his wound. Shakai did not respond, immediately but rather led Link to the door of the garrison building for Kakariko.

"You know what it is you must do, your quest belongs to you alone and is not for us to interfere with. We wish you luck on your mission but I have offered all of the assistance I can give." Shakai stated. Link bowed slightly in a gesture of respect before proceeding towards the center of town, the place where he knew the well to be. The windmill which had been ancient in his time seemed as if it had been constructed merely months before, the stones were perfect and white and the wood was bright and supple as if recently cut.

Another problem presented itself as Link approached the well, the purpose of a well was to be full of water and that was exactly what the Kakariko Village Well did. It was filled half way up with clear water and an iron ladder rising up the side went clear from top to bottom. He thought hard about the well and tried to discern some way of getting through to the bottom without drowning, much less finding whatever was down there.

_I'll never forget that ocarina kid, he messed up this windmill and made the well run dry, he played THIS SONG_

Link had thought it to be an unimportant detail at the time, but now it proved to be an extremely valuable accident that he stumbled across an otherwise useless ability to simply cause rain. It was not the rain he needed, but what accompanied it, strong winds. The windmill was in essence a giant pump. Its primary purpose was to grind down wheat and grain but its secondary purpose of sucking up water for livestock was equally important. If the windmill didn't spin, the cows didn't drink.

Link lifted the ocarina of time to his lips and played the short melody, nearly forgotten on the fringes of his memory. The tune filled the air with an odd sense of static and the smell of ozone filled Link's nostrils as he continued to play faster and stronger. Droplets of rain began to land upon his hat from a sky that had been till moments ago bright and blue with not a single cloud in sight.

The few children that were outside ran home as the wind kicked up the dusty soil and the rain began to fall harder and faster, the rhythm of the storm increasing with the rhythm of the song. A groaning sound filled the air as the windmill began to spin faster in the violent gale, the rain stung like needles and any minute now the thunder would begin.

In the distance, there was a sound almost like an explosion and Link had to struggle to keep from laughing as an almost comical spray of water erupted from the top of the windmill, spraying hundreds of feet into the air before gushing back down as so many drops of clear fresh water.

The level of water within the well dropped drastically and within a minute it seemed it would be completely empty. Link hopped over the edge and began to climb down the ladder as the water continued to recede, by the time he was half way down the ladder the water was already gone. His feet hit the bottom and an echo resounded through the empty corridors beneath the well, deflecting off the wet walls and carrying on into infinity. Once again Link wished he had Navi and her natural light, as well as her sound advice and tactical mind.

For now, he had to settle for the next best thing. He pulled out a deku stick and wrapped the long cloth bandage he no longer required around its end. A little bit of Dins Fire was all it took to engulf the makeshift torch in flames. Instantly the bottom of the well was filled with dim torchlight, the flickering flames illuminated a doorway in the distance down the corridor, in which an ancient metal door hung ajar.

Link drew the sword in his left hand and held the torch in his right as he entered the darkness beyond, and let the shadows consume him.

((()))

The place Beneath the Well was not as empty as one might expect. Many years ago a man had entered this place, and in the darkness below he had discovered an ancient crypt full of mummified bodies from the olden days when Hylians still walked among the clouds. These bodies had rested for many thousands of years in a peaceful stasis of lifelessness, but this man had no intention of letting them remain at rest.

He bestowed upon himself the title of Necromancer, and in the empty darkness beneath the well an evil consumed his rotten mind and vile heart. He used forbidden magic to bring the dead back to life, and they became the objects of his depravity. But as a man he was mortal, and so when he died he made the most wicked creation of all to contain his dark soul.

It was the master of the redeads, an unholy binding of the limbs and bodies of the uncounted dead. On the surface, only one before had ever seen it, and to it he gave another name. It was the Dead Hand, the soul of the Necromancer, and from its cold rotted fingers nothing could escape.

When it transcended its mortal body and took its new form, it became all seeing and powerful, its senses extended outward as if the very nadir of the earth were an extention of its body, and it felt the intruder descend into the depths. On silent command, things that had not moved for an age began to stir. The dead awakened and walked about. And it was not just the dead, other things long forgotten rose into undeath. The sound of moaning filled the air as the tortured souls wailed in despair, once again summoned to their master's call.

This sound did not escape Link's ears, it was almost as a distant wind moaning through the tunnels, but there was no wind in the depths, only death. Link held the torch higher and kept his sword at a ready position as he advanced into the ancient underground corridors. The floor sloped gradually upward in the direction of Death Mountain, and after walking about a hundred yards he passed a line of algae and growth on the wall that was the mark of where the water had lain. Past that line there could be anything.

_Keeeeeep Ouuuuuut…_

Link shuddered and raised his blade, but the voice had no source, the nothingness had spoken. He did not heed it and continued forward. A dark wind blew against him and with it was carried the sounds of the undead.

_You were warned, now the door is closed! And you will die, Hylian!_

There was a muffled creak and then a clang that echoed with finality, the light that had waited behind him for his return to the overworld was shut. Link did not tarry, there was no way to go back and so he continued forward. There was a chamber ahead and framed in its doorway was a man hanging by his arms beneath a pair of crossed beams that formed an "X". As he drew closer, he could see that the man was a shriveled corpse with a gaping mouth.

_Your death has been assured, we know what it is you seek, and you shall find both things if you pass through the broken cross._

"What are you?" Link growled, keeping his torch raised.

_I am the mouth of the dead._

Link approached the cross, the corpse hanging beneath it shifted, and he could feel its hollow eyes piercing his very soul. Its mouth opened and from it passed the words of the necromancer. Link froze, unsure what to think of this new creature.

"You tell me to pass through the cross, what is it that I will find beyond?"

_You will find The Eye of Truth, and you will find death. Both are beyond and below._

"What enemy awaits beyond?" Link asked, trying to get a good glimpse of what lay beyond the crossed timbers. A miasma filled the air and obstructed his view, the only way to find what was on the other side was to pass through into the murk.

_The enemy is death, death claims all, he is unavoidable. The inexorable end of life is upon you, and your only decision will be if it occurs on this floor or beyond. Death has put his grasp on your soul. Prepare to die._

Link swung his sword and decapitated the hanging corpse, silencing its voice forever. The moaning Link had heard for a while now began to rise in volume and grew nearer. From every corner and crevice approached Redeads and Gibdos, hundreds of them, completely surrounding him with only one route of escape. Forward.

Without further hesitation, Link charged into the gloom, and the floor disappeared beneath his feet. The voice of the dead one filled his ears one last time.  
><em>The Enemy has chosen a fall, only The Eye could foresee<em>

Link blacked out before he even hit the floor.

((()))

Everything was black, Link couldn't see anything, not even his hand in front of his face. The pain in his right ankle was nearly unbearable and he didn't need a healer to tell him it was at least sprained. His torch had either gone out or been lost in the fall, either way there was no light, and worse yet was the sound of shuffling footsteps approaching him in the blackness. Even without light he could sense that the dead were very close by, and they were getting closer. They desired to feed their hunger which could never be satiated, and the only way to do so was to partake in his flesh and blood.

Link reached for his sword and realized that it too was gone, it had been in his hand when he fell and was lost. Without the sword to defend himself he felt naked, he needed an alternative weapon, and fast. When one loses precision, raw power is the next best option. Link had lost the precision of his sword, and the ability to see provided by torchlight. He quickly came up with a single solution to both problems. He unleashed Din's Fire in all directions, the flame expanded outwards and immediately the room became filled with light. About two dozen gibdos had been approaching him from every side, and every last one of them felt the full wrath of the sacred flame. They collapsed onto the floor and their slowly burning corpses illuminated the room Link had fallen into. It was a circular arena about fifty feet across, with a dirt floor and at its rear a chest which Link assumed contained The Lens of Truth.

_Young hero  
>Strong and Bright.<br>Why do you come here  
>Bringing harsh Light?<em>

Doors along the walls opened and more of the undead began to stream in. Link spotted his weapon gleaming in the firelight and with the sword grasped in his hands he instantly felt as if he had been restored.

The zombies ceased their movement as the ground beneath Link's feet began to shift and boil like a liquid. The boy leapt backwards as from the ground emerged a malformed head with a massive jaw, followed by a neck several feet in length. The lengthy neck was attached to a bloated and rotten body, with two stubby arms that ended in torn stumps and apparently no legs. The body moved much as a slug does, sliding along the ground with a trail of bile in its wake.

The Draugrs retreated back into the doors along the walls as the malformed corpse approached, slowly. It snapped its jaws together as if expecting to eat soon, Link had to struggle to keep from laughing. How could something so slow and unwieldy possibly expect to catch up with him, even with his sprained ankle.

The injury continued to remind him that it was there, but for the time being he was able to ignore it, focusing on the more important battle instead. Something cold and wet wrapped around his neck from the back and squeezed, lifting Link off the floor and choking him. It was so unexpected that he wasn't even able to react in time. Around the room the hands of corpses rose from the floor and Link surmised that one such hand was holding him.

"I am the Necromancer, Dead Hand you may call me. You are brave to come here and I would certainly be mistaken if I were to call you without courage, but the time for your death has come." The creature spoke. Its neck bent downward on broken vertebrae and its mouth opened so wide it could accommodate Link's entire head. Link continued to struggle against the hand grasped at his throat but it was useless, the dead grip was too strong.

"Do not fear me, accept me. Soon I shall be your master, as I am master of all the dead."

Link lashed out with his sword but the creature was just outside of his reach. Its neck was so long that it could raise its head above Link while staying outside of his sword's reach. With no way to attack the creature itself, Link resorted to attacking the thing holding him inside its range, he swung his blade behind his back and severed the corpse arm that had been strangling him. Link fell to the floor and another stab of pain rushed through his ankle, but he shrugged it off and retreated outside of the range of the corpse.

There was a momentary stand off. Link didn't want to attack incase the enemy had more tricks up its sleeve, the enemy didn't want to attack someone who was swifter and well armed. This only lasted for a moment however, till Link decided to charge at his adversary, and the battle began in earnest.

**Hey guys, sorry I was gone forever, school was killing me. I'll be trying to get updates out on schedule through the end of the ocarina of time segment. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the other segments I wanted to get done (Majora, Twilight Princess, Link to the Past) but I will certainly complete the Ocarina of Time segment for all of you, I owe you all and myself that much. Thank you for reading and don't forget to review.**

**-Siegfried**


End file.
